Beyond the Brief

The film Rebel Ridge came September 6 and shot to #1 on Netflix. It depicts a former Marine’s attempts to get his money back after it was taken by police through civil forfeiture. That story sounded pretty familiar to us at IJ.  

We have been working to dismantle civil forfeiture for decades, but unlike the film’s main character, our clients aren’t vigilantes who take the law into their own hands; instead, they fight back in court. So how accurate is Rebel Ridge’s portrayal of civil forfeiture?  

To find out, we talk with IJ attorney Kirby Thomas West.

https://youtu.be/VsrytcKoE5k

Know Your Rights Card

Civil forfeiture is the process the government uses to take and sell your property—including cash, cars, and even homes—even if you have not been convicted of—or even charged with—any crime.

Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their property through civil forfeiture—don’t be one of them!

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Your Property or Theirs?

Once your property has been seized by the government there is a byzantine process to get it back. See the steps and pitfalls for navigating a federal forfeiture case in this comprehensive overview.

view the process

It’s legal to travel domestically with any amount of cash. It’s legal to travel in and out of the U.S. with more than $10k if you declare it. But that doesn’t stop law enforcement from searching travelers’ property and seizing any cash they find without warrants or evidence of a crime. Today we talk with IJ attorneys Jaba Tsitsuashvili and Ben Field about how the government treats carrying cash like a crime and what IJ’s doing to fight back.

https://youtu.be/WmVFud7v2r4

Know Your Rights Card

Civil forfeiture is the process the government uses to take and sell your property—including cash, cars, and even homes—even if you have not been convicted of—or even charged with—any crime.

Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their property through civil forfeiture—don’t be one of them!

download the card

Your Property or Theirs?

Once your property has been seized by the government there is a byzantine process to get it back. See the steps and pitfalls for navigating a federal forfeiture case in this comprehensive overview.

view the process

On a typical day, police officers pull over more than 50,000 drivers. If you’ve had a recent encounter with police, chances are good it was during a traffic stop. Traffic stops can lead to searches, arrests, and worse, yet they seldom involve a [search] warrant. So how did vehicles become Fourth-Amendment-free zones? 

Today we are joined by Josh Windham, the leader of IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment. We’ll explore how traffic stops are driving a hole through the Fourth Amendment and how IJ is pushing back.   

Tell Us Your Story

Did police search your car? Did they fail to get consent or a warrant? We want to hear from you!

IJ attorneys will review your potential case.

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The freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment is a foundational and cherished right that sets America apart from other constitutional democracies.   

Many people think of the First Amendment in the context of controversial speech on highly politicized issues. But did you know that some of the most important free speech cases today involve uncontroversial speech on issues that matter to ordinary Americans in their daily lives?   

Today we have with us IJ Senior Attorneys Paul Sherman and Robert Johnson to discuss this trend and why it is affecting more and more Americans.   

https://youtu.be/6hPvz263OLw

Learn more about our First Amendment work.

Central to the mission of the Institute for Justice is reinvigorating the founding principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We seek to defend the free flow of information—information that is indispensable to our democratic form of government and to our free enterprise economy.

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As our listeners probably know, civil forfeiture is legal practice that lets the government take and keep your property by claiming it’s connected to a crime, without needing to convict anyone.  You can lose your property even when the government agrees you’re innocent. 

Recently, the Supreme Court decided an important forfeiture case. While the outcome was disappointing, the way they decided it gives us hope that the high court is finally ready to rein in this form of theft-by-government. 

Today we chat with IJ attorneys Dan Alban and Kirby Thomas-West to discuss Culley v. Marshall and what it means for the fight against civil forfeiture.

https://youtu.be/TJtmmtRbrhs

Become a Monthly Donor

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

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Imagine a SWAT team raids a house—battering doors, breaking windows, and coating everything inside with tear gas residue.  Now imagine the SWAT team had the wrong address. Who do think would pay for the damage?  If you said insurance, you’re probably wrong. If you said the city, you’re probably also wrong. 

Today, IJ attorneys Jeff Redfern and Dylan Moore talk with us about this nightmare situation facing homeowners across America – and how the Institute for Justice is fighting to change it.

https://youtu.be/peWkkpsvndY

Become a Monthly Donor

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

donate monthly

In March 2021, people entered a private security-deposit box company in Beverly Hills, CA, broke open hundreds of boxes, and indiscriminately seized their contents – collectively worth over one hundred million dollars. Box holders lost their life savings, family heirlooms, important documents, and more.  But the people who took their property weren’t mobsters; they were FBI agents.

Today we have with us IJ attorneys Bob Belden and Mike Greenberg.  They’re going to share with us the story of an unprecedented FBI raid – and how the Institute for Justice is making sure it never happens again. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVcE3IzK4TA

related case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31XBx_AbmqM

Become a Monthly Donor:  https://ij.org/support/monthly-giving/

We like to think of America as a land of opportunity and second chances. But what happens when a web of government restrictions prevents someone from earning an honest living due to past mistakes?  Today we’re talking with IJ Attorney Andrew Ward, and Rudy Carey, a substance abuse counselor and former IJ client.  We discuss so-called “permanent punishment” laws, the millions of people they affect, and how IJ is helping Americans get the fresh starts they deserve.  

https://youtu.be/yfApc87-eSg

Related Case Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiHMg2xBQUk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVi1beANBBQ

If a federal official violates your rights, is it impossible to hold them accountable?  In this episode, we talk with IJ senior attorneys Anya Bidwell and Patrick Jaicomo, leaders of IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability.  We discuss some outrageous cases of abuse by federal officials, why it’s so hard to sue the Feds, and what IJ is doing to clear a path to justice.

https://youtu.be/teOXBgd3yCo?si=QBFZD6mrk-pAd2C-

Your home is supposed to be your castle. But what about the land your castle sits on?  We discuss why it is that most private land in America gets no protection from warrantless government surveillance. We are joined by IJ attorney and co-director of IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment, Josh Windham.

https://youtu.be/jN-VEE7fAEs

related report

Good Fences? Good Luck

Released in the Cato Institute’s Regulation magazine, IJ’s study “Good Fences? Good Luck” is the first study to put a number on the amount of private property vulnerable to warrantless searches by federal agents thanks to a legal precedent known as the “open fields doctrine.” It finds that nearly 96% of all private land in the country—about 1.2 billion acres—is essentially open to federal government trespass. 

read report