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Comment by balozi | Hacker News Reader

I'm calling it now: 6-3. Thomas, Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan in the six.

Thomas has made his position clear about this in the past, Roberts sensibilities are often libertarian, and the others are liberals.

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However, liberals upheld forfeiture in United States v. Ursery, 1996. The only dissent in that case was Stevens.

I'm not familiar with Ursery and have only skimmed a few sources, but I saw nothing suggesting that the legality of civil forfeiture per se was even disputed in that case. If I read Stevens's dissent correctly, it challenges only the constitutionality of one of the involved criminal cases, arguing that because the previously seized property did not represent proceeds of a crime, the perpetrator had a legitimate property right of which the government had deprived him. Therefore, the forfeiture already served as a punishment for the crime, so double jeopardy precludes a subsequent criminal trial on the same offense.

I'd be interested in knowing if I'm missing something important here.

Wouldn't liberals be pro-forfeiture?

No? "Liberal" doesn't mean "pro-government". What definition are you using that suggests they would?

Are conservatives pro-government?

Define "pro-government".

The colloquial definition used by most of the US citizenry and on television news programs on both 24-hour cable networks and broadcast television.

That doesn't make that definition correct...

> The colloquial definition used by most of the US citizenry and on television news programs on both 24-hour cable networks and broadcast television.

Could you be more specific?

'Liberal' in the US is associated with the expansion of the welfare state, preferring having government solve all social problems, and abridging individual freedoms if the greater good is served.

And what does that have to do with forfeiture?

Fiscally liberal, socially liberal.

You may be conflating liberal (those who agree with the political ideology) with liberal (used inaccurately to describe supporters of the Democratic Party), though I doubt you would find significant support for civil forfeiture among either group.

Why do you say that?

Why would they?

No...you're thinking of conservatives which tend to lean more authoritarian than liberals.

No, because Liberals care about the entire Constitution, not just the second amendment.

All justices are constitutional, thats their job.

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