Culley v. Marshall highlights issues with civil asset forfeitures
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 29, 2023) – NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case Culley v. Steven Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama at the U.S. Supreme Court. The case concerns civil asset forfeitures and whether the due process clause requires a post-seizure probable cause hearing.
“Small business owners who rent, sell, and conduct cash transactions are particularly vulnerable to seizures like the one highlighted in this case,” said Beth Milito, Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “Without a hearing, small business owners are forced to go through a lengthy and costly forfeiture process, where they may not recover their property for years. NFIB urges the Court to reverse the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling and establish that innocent small business owners are entitled to a prompt post-deprivation hearing.”
NFIB’s brief describes how small businesses are targeted and injured in the absence of clear constitutional guardrails around civil asset forfeiture.
The brief highlights three distinct harms on small businesses: 1) civil asset forfeiture subjects people who drive vehicles, many of them small business owners, to roadside seizures, 2) the financial burden for the public’s illegal conduct is often passed onto businesses through civil asset forfeiture, and 3) civil asset forfeiture punishes business owners for the conduct of employees, even when the employee acts outside of the scope of employment.
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
