Jacob Sullum on Rand Paul's Plan to Limit Legal Theft
In 2003 a Nebraska state trooper stopped Emiliano Gonzolez for speeding on Interstate 80 and found $124,700 inside a cooler on the back seat of the rented Ford Taurus he was driving. Gonzolez said the money was intended to buy a refrigerated truck for a produce business, but the cops figured all that cash must have something to do with illegal drugs.
Although there was not much evidence to support that theory, under federal forfeiture law the government managed to keep Gonzolez's money based on little more than a hunch. Jacob Sullum says a bill introduced last week by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) would make that sort of highway robbery harder to pull off.