The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes civil forfeiture laws that allow the government to seize property without due process, suggesting it promotes corruption.
George Will's quote highlights the issues surrounding civil forfeiture laws, which permit authorities to confiscate property from individuals without requiring them to be charged with a crime. This lack of due process is seen as a violation of individual rights, where government agencies profit from actions that are considered more punitive than the treatment of convicted criminals, raising ethical concerns about fairness and justice in the legal system.
In practice
In a debate about property rights, one might use this quote to illustrate the dangers of government overreach.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of america is justice and securing the blessings of liberty.
Lack of lawful access certainly affects our ability to do our jobs, but we know where the harm really falls when evidence is kept unavailable - it falls on innocent people, the people we're sworn to protect.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
That's what justice represents to me - it's about empowerment of the people.
Justice remains the tool of a few powerful interests; legal interpretations will continue to be made to suit the convenience of the oppressor powers.
I cannot see any of these death penalty cases where there hasn't been a violation on the ground of either poverty or race. If we can ever get that straightened out, it will help. But, of course, the real answer to it is to do away with the death penalty.
Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret.
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