• Home
  • About
    • About Christopher di Armani
    • Disclosure Statement
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Gun Laws 101
  • FPO Violators
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Hire Me

Christopher di Armani.com

In Praise of Individual Rights and Freedoms

  • Top 25
  • Big Brother
    • Access To Information
    • Bureaucratic Incompetence
    • Bureaucrat’s Rule #1
    • Censorship
    • Feeding at the Government Trough
    • Lemonade Freedom
  • Common Sense
    • Expressions of Gratitude
    • Good Samaritans
    • Good Stuff
    • In Memoriam — Remembering our Heros
    • Life
    • Personal Responsibility
    • Politically Correct Madness
  • Courts
    • Abusive Prosecutions
    • Civil Forfeiture
    • Human Rights Tribunals
    • Judicial Corruption
    • Justice Denied
    • Justice System Abuses
    • Police Sentencing Double-Standards
    • Prosecutorial Misconduct
    • SLAPP Lawsuits
  • Crime
    • Abuse of Trust
    • Canadian Mass Murders
    • Firearm Prohibition Orders
    • Human Depravity
    • Immigration Issues
    • Racism
    • Restraining Orders
    • Sexual Predators
    • Violent Criminals
    • Wrongful Convictions
  • Guns
    • Concealed Carry
    • Dial 9-1-1 and Die
    • Firearms Act
    • Fun Gun Stuff
    • Gun Control
    • Gun-Free Zones
    • Gun Politics
    • Gun Registration
    • Negligent Discharges
    • Target Shooting Competitions
  • Islam
    • Canadian Islamic Disgraces
    • Islamic Terrorism
    • Radical Islam
    • Sharia Law
    • The Religion Of Peace
  • Police
    • Abuse of Police Authority
    • Filming Police
    • Great Police Officers
    • Officer Down
    • Police Brutality
    • Police Corruption
    • Police Misconduct
    • RCMP Accountability
    • RCMP Hall of Shame
    • Warrantless Searches
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Ethics in Politics
    • Political Antics
    • Political Corruption
    • Social Justice
    • Stupid Human Tricks
    • Union Bay Improvement District
  • Rights
    • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
    • Constitutional Violations
    • Freedom of Assembly
    • Freedom of Religion
    • Freedom of Speech
    • Property Rights
    • Privacy Rights
    • Self-Defense
    • Unreasonable Search and Seizure

Utah Senate Slams Door on Civil Asset Forfeiture Loopholes

Published February 9, 2021 by Christopher di Armani Filed Under: Civil Forfeiture


Civil asset forfeiture is the legal procedure for seizing your assets without the tedious requirement of convicting you, the hapless property owner, of a criminal offence.

If it were anyone but government officials doing the stealing, this would be called theft. Because it’s government, their lawyers call it a ‘victimless prosecution’ where the property, not the property owner, is put on trial.

I know…

It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s government policy.

Thankfully, Utah is taking new steps to prevent state law enforcement agencies from profiting from this highly abusive process.

On January 19, 2021, Utah Senator Todd Weiler introduced Senate Bill 98 to slam the door shut on efforts to circumvent limits on state civil forfeiture passed in 2000.

SB98 opts Utah out of the federal ‘equity sharing’ program that state police agencies were using to circumvent “Initiative B” – a 2000 initiative designed to limit the ability of government to steal property from innocent people.

When Utah voters put “Initiative B” on the ballot two decades ago, Utah law enforcement officials fought tooth and nail to stop the measure that would derail their gravy train. Despite their opposition, or perhaps in spite it, voters overwhelmingly supported “Initiative B”, which passed by 69%.

According to the Libertas Institute, after the 2000 restriction, “Law enforcement officials immediately sought to undermine the law and re-introduce the ability to obtain a part of the resulting proceeds from the confiscated property.”

In 2013, law enforcement crafted legislation that gutted several private property and due process protections in forfeiture law and then stood by silently—and knowingly—while the legislature was misled into believing that the lengthy change to forfeiture law was only technical and superficial, as opposed to substantive.

Our policy analysis, written a few months later, highlighted what law enforcement had done. To correct this gross error and restore these deceptive changes, we proposed legislation designed to restore these changes.

SB98, when passed, will:

  • Make clear, as the Court ruled in Savely, that state courts have jurisdiction over seized property so that the property cannot be transferred to the federal government (where there are fewer legal protections for the property owner).
  • Clean up and clarify Utah forfeiture law in response to the Court’s criticism that the existing statute was “not a model of clarity.”
  • Specify that if someone disclaims ownership of property (i.e. a bag of cash found by police during a roadside stop), the disclaimer of the property must be knowing and voluntary. (This is important because by disclaiming an ownership interest in the property, the person would lose the ability to contest its forfeiture by the government.)
  • Require information about the forfeiture process to be provided to the person from whom the property is taken, including information about how to assert a claim of ownership to contest the forfeiture proceedings.
  • Allow transfer of property to a government agency outside of Utah only under certain narrow conditions, such as if the property is not money and it is evidence in a crime being investigated by the other law enforcement agency.

It’s refreshing to see a jurisdiction anywhere in North America taking private property rights seriously precisely because it is so rare.

 


For those familiar with the Bruce Montague case, you may remember the Ontario Provincial Government attempted to steal the Montague family home using civil forfeiture under the Civil Remedies Act.

For reasons they never explained, the provincial government abandoned the seizure attempt of the Montague family home. Bruce and Donna still live there today.

Katey Montague on Ontario Government Theft of Montague Family Home Using Civil Forfeiture


Required Reading

In 2015, the Institute for Justice published the second edition of their landmark report, Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture, which describes civil forfeiture as a threat to the “constitutional rights of all Americans”.

From the 2015 report:

Using civil forfeiture, the government can take your home, business, cash, car or other property on the mere suspicion that it is somehow connected to criminal activity—and without ever convicting or even charging you with a crime.

Most people unfamiliar with this process would find it hard to believe that such a power exists in a country that is supposed to recognize and hold dear rights to private property and due process of law.

Policing for Profit’s interactive 3rd edition was published in December 2020, and is required reading for all North Americans. [download PDF]

Author

  • Christopher di Armani
    Christopher di Armani

    Christopher di Armani is a freedom-loving Amazon bestselling author and current events commentator from Lytton, BC, Canada, who strives to awaken the passion for liberty inside every human being.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Tags: asset forfeiture, Bruce Montague, civil asset forfeiture, civil forfeiture, Montague Family Home

Did you find value in this article?

If you found this article useful or it contained valuable information and you want to thank me, the best way is to buy me a coffee or two.

1. Send an Interac eTransfer to author @ christopherdiarmani.net (remove spaces)

2. Send via PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.me/ThatLibertyGuy

3. Use your credit card in my online store to support me with a one-time donation, a monthly recurring donation, or an annual donation. See these links for all the details about the thank-you gifts I offer my supporters.

Comments

  1. Arie Intveld says

    February 9, 2021 at 5:54 pm

    Taxation is extortion and theft. Civil forfeiture is theft. EVERYTHING the government “owns” is paid for by money and assets stolen from taxpayers. Hence the old cliché of “Don’t steal; the government doesn’t like competition”.

    If civil forfeiture is truly exercised on the basis of the seizure of assets/proceeds gained through criminal acts, with the noble goal of “equity sharing”, then EVERYTHING the government “owns” should equitably be subject to forfeiture and seizure by the people (taxpayers).

    All public servants in all levels of government hold the mindset that “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is me own”.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to my commentaries

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Latest Tweets

Follow @ThatLibertyGuy

Christopher di Armani 🇨🇦 🇺🇸
@ThatLibertyGuy

  • New comment: Edmonton Police Service Constable Adam Kube Refused Any Appeal In His Termination for Corrupt Practices christopherdiarmani.com/10846/police/p…
    about 2 weeks ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • A big shout out to @CandiceMalcolm, @AndrewLawton, @AnthonyFurey and the entire team at @TrueNorthCentre for sendin… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 4 weeks ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 1 month ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: Paul Rogan Passes: The End of an Era christopherdiarmani.com/18908/common-s…
    about 2 months ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • To restore common sense to our nation, this is the path. The political left works around the clock and around the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 2 months ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite

Most Popular This Week

  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • And the Special Treatment for Spouse-Abusing RCMP members just keeps on coming…
  • No Right to Bear Arms in Canada? You might want to re-check your history.
  • A Historic Day for Freedom of Speech: Geert Wilders
  • The National Anthem BANNED… at Indiana’s Goshen College?
  • Thank God for Andrew Abbass and his Lawyer
  • Constable Adam Massart: Give him the finger, he’ll point his service pistol at you

Most Popular This Month

  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • Yvon Mercier: From RCMP Depot Trainer to Double-Murderer
  • OPP Sgt. Mike Dolderman’s Sexual Assault Trial Delayed Again
  • Dale Merle Nelson’s 1970 Murder Spree in Creston, British Columbia
  • How did Live-Streaming Rape Become a ‘Thing’?
  • OPP Sergeant Jamie Gillespie Pleads Guilty to attempting to intercept private communications
  • Escaped Mental Patient William Bernard Lepine and the 1972 Kettle Valley Murders

© 2004–2023 ChristopherDiArmani.com | All Rights Reserved

Close

Buy me a cup of coffee

A ridiculous amount of coffee was consumed in the process of writing these articles. If you enjoy my work, please buy me a coffee or two to keep me going!