This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, September 8th, 2014. I'm Caleb Brown.

Philadelphia is in a class by itself when it comes to seizing the property of its residents

without arresting them or even charging them with crimes.

Darpanisheath is an attorney at the Institute for Justice.

She's leading a class action to stop civil asset forfeiture in the city of

brotherly love. Philadelphia is really the ground zero for forfeiture abuse.

While many other jurisdictions have civil forfeiture laws, Philadelphia has really turned civil forfeiture into this machine that is devouring people's property as well as taking away their constitutional rights.

So the specific case that you all have filed attempts to stop the city of Philadelphia from seizing

people's homes without them being charged with a crime often

and without certainly not without a trial.

Right.

They've um, Philadelphia has seized people's properties but it's not just limited to homes.

They've seized people's homes, cars, and cash.

And in fact, from 2002 until 2012, the DA's office has taken over 1,000 homes, 3,200 vehicles, and over 44 million

in cash from its residents, many of whom were never charged with any wrongdoing, and it's

taken this and essentially put it in its own pocket. The DA's office directly

benefits from all the forfeiture proceeds that it takes.

I've heard interviews with Beth Grossman who heads the office that is essentially in charge

of these proceedings. You can't call them courtroom

proceedings because they're not really in a courtroom, there's no judge. And it just

seems on to me how she will defend this practice when there, again, no convictions are necessary.

Right, and that is something that's true of civil forfeiture law in general, which is why

...