A recent op-ed from the federal prosecutor assigned to Utah, John Huber, defends the practice of civil forfeiture from its critics, who include us (“Civil forfeiture is a useful tool in fighting crime,” Sept. 30).
But not just us — 86 percent of Utah voters and 84 percent of all Americans oppose civil asset forfeiture. For the uninitiated, this is a law that allows the government to legally take possession of your property without even having to charge you with commission of a crime, let alone secure a conviction.
Huber first aims to defend this practice by writing that forfeiture “separate[s] criminals from the tools of their trade and the proceeds from their crimes.