Not an American but reading all the outrage gives me the impression that police in US is just going around seizing a couple of thousand dollars from anyone they can find to fill up their budget and hope no one will go to court because it'd be more expensive for the accused to hire a lawyer. Nevermind that contingency fee arrangments are widespread and that small amounts of cash, even to the extent of a few tens of thousand dollars can easily be proved as legitimate money if one has a job. Not familiar with US civil procedure but it should involve showing your tax returns and asking for a summary judgment, and later a tort lawsuit against the State for all the suffering caused. I would be interested in knowing the median amount seized by police in such cases. Maybe its just a case of politicians one after another not being ideologues about property right but recognizing the merits of adopting a pragmatist approach to augment law enforcement budget by seizing large amounts of obviously ill gotten wealth without having to discharge a high (and expensive) burden of proof in each case. If so, sounds good to me.