Glenn Reynolds, the blogfather , goes after Jeff Sessions in his USA Today opinion piece Forget Russia. I’d fire Jeff Sessions over civil forfeiture. I couldn’t agree more strongly.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to steal from you. (Emphasis added – ChrisA)

Oh, he doesn’t call it that. He calls it “civil forfeiture.” But what it is, is theft by law enforcement. Sessions should be ashamed. If I were president, he’d be fired.

Well, Glenn would have never selected Jeff Sessions in the first place, but that does nothing to invalidate his opinion.

Under “civil forfeiture,” law enforcement can take property from people under the legal fiction that the property itself is guilty of a crime. (“Legal fiction” sounds better than “lie,” but in this case the two terms are near synonyms.) It was originally sold as a tool for going after the assets of drug kingpins, but nowadays it seems to be used against a lot of ordinary Americans who just have things that law enforcement wants. It’s also a way for law enforcement agencies to maintain off-budget slush funds, thus escaping scrutiny.

Just go ask Boulderites Bert and Jean Wagner how Civil Asset Forfeiture made their lives, and their daughters a living hell. Homeland Security Terrorizes Family

Bet you didn’t know this factoid…

The problem is pretty widespread: In 2015, The Washington Post reported that law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did.

Reynolds concludes….

In the meantime, Sessions is doing exactly the wrong thing by doubling down on asset seizure. The message it sends is that the feds see the rest of us as prey, not as citizens. The attorney general should be ashamed to take that position. And, really, he should just be gone. (emphasis added again – ChrisA)

Can’t happen soon enough, although I’m more than very skeptical that it will. And a big h/t to the blogfather for taking on Jeff Sessions and for his Instapundit blog.