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.

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