Congress must end legalized theft on US highways
Marine veteran Stephen Lara lost his life savings in an instant while driving through the Great Basin Desert. He had done nothing wrong, but Nevada State Police stopped his rental car, grabbed his cash, and left him stranded on Interstate 80.
People concerned about lazy government workers should watch the bodycam video. The agency sniffed out a potential payday and pursued the money with passion. Details like Lara’s innocence did not matter.
What came next was civil forfeiture, a process that allows the government to keep seized property permanently without linking it to wrongdoing in criminal court. Most states do not even require an arrest or conviction.
Speculation and innuendo can suffice, destroying the intent of the Fifth Amendment, which says no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law.
Once civil forfeiture cases end, participating agencies can keep up to 100 percent of the proceeds for themselves. The result is an incentive to patrol for profit. One former police chief in Columbia, Mo., called the revenue “pennies from heaven.” Lara prefers a different description "highway robbery."
Congress can help end the legalized theft with the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act, a bipartisan measure that has been awaiting a vote since 2015. The current version, which the Senate reintroduced in January 2025, would protect property owners from the worst civil forfeiture abuses.
States could continue to pursue forfeitures under state law, but people like Lara would benefit in one important way: this would end “equitable sharing,” a moneymaking program that Congress authorized decades ago.
The scheme is cynical. State and local agencies that want to bypass their own states’ civil forfeiture laws can hand seized property to the U.S. government for civil forfeiture under federal law. This switch almost never works to property owners’ advantage because Congress provides some of the weakest forfeiture safeguards in the nation.
Property owners with strong protections in places like North Carolina and Missouri can suddenly find themselves exposed in federal court. Most property owners do not even make it that far. Once the U.S. Department of Justice gets involved, 93 percent of cases end administratively, meaning property owners never see a judge. Instead, their case is decided by the very federal agency trying to forfeit their property.
State and local participants get up to 80 percent of the proceeds, like a kickback. In effect, the federal government pays them to circumvent their own states’ laws.
This is what Nevada attempted with Lara. His ordeal started on Feb. 19, 2021, during a road trip from Texas to visit his two daughters in California. A state trooper started following Lara and pulled him over when he passed a slow-moving tanker truck.
Lara remained polite and answered questions truthfully. When asked, he acknowledged the money in his trunk — nearly $87,000. Carrying currency is legal, and Lara had bank receipts showing legitimate withdrawals. He just prefers cash, so he brought his savings with him.
None of this had anything to do with the federal government. Yet the state transferred the money to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration anyway.
Lara fought back on two fronts. He contested the civil forfeiture in federal court and got his money back eight months later. And he sued Nevada in state court for violating his rights. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents him.
His state case remains open, but a ruling on Jan. 10, 2025, adds clarity on one point. The judge held that state police must follow state law. Agencies cannot skirt state laws by using equitable sharing.
Other states have reached similar conclusions legislatively. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Maine, Maryland and Ohio — along with Washington, D.C. — have passed anti-circumvention laws that restrict equitable sharing.
Elsewhere, the loophole remains open. Congress can close it with this bill, however, which would end equitable sharing nationwide. The measure would also eliminate the federal profit incentive by sending forfeiture proceeds to the general fund rather than letting law enforcement agencies keep the money. And the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act would end federal administrative forfeiture, ensuring the right to see a neutral judge instead of agency bureaucrats.
Lara got none of these protections. Police and prosecutors abused him, and Congress helped them do it. Congress must pass this bill to protect property rights and prevent further abuses.
Dan Alban is a senior attorney and co-director of the National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va. Daryl James is an Institute for Justice writer.
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