<P> Civil forfeiture in the United States , also called civil asset forfeiture or civil judicial forfeiture or occasionally civil seizure , is a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing . While civil procedure , as opposed to criminal procedure , generally involves a dispute between two private citizens , civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a pile of cash or a house or a boat , such that the thing is suspected of being involved in a crime . To get back the seized property , owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity . Sometimes it can mean a threat to seize property as well as the act of seizure itself . In 2015 , Eric Holder ended `` adoptive forfeiture '' which occurred `` when a state or local law enforcement agency seizes property pursuant to state law and requests that a federal agency take the seized asset and forfeit it under federal law '' due to abuse . States proceeded to curtail the powers of police to seize assets , actions by the Justice Department in July 2017 have sought to reinstate police seizure powers to raise funding for federal agencies and local law enforcement . </P>
<P> Civil forfeiture in the United States , also called civil asset forfeiture or civil judicial forfeiture or occasionally civil seizure , is a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing . While civil procedure , as opposed to criminal procedure , generally involves a dispute between two private citizens , civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a pile of cash or a house or a boat , such that the thing is suspected of being involved in a crime . To get back the seized property , owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity . Sometimes it can mean a threat to seize property as well as the act of seizure itself . In 2015 , Eric Holder ended `` adoptive forfeiture '' which occurred `` when a state or local law enforcement agency seizes property pursuant to state law and requests that a federal agency take the seized asset and forfeit it under federal law '' due to abuse . States proceeded to curtail the powers of police to seize assets , actions by the Justice Department in July 2017 have sought to reinstate police seizure powers to raise funding for federal agencies and local law enforcement . </P>
laws that make something illegal without allowing a trial
laws that make something illegal without allowing a trial
Civil forfeiture
Civil forfeiture