The city of Albuquerque "has an unconstitutional
institutional incentive to prosecute forfeiture cases, because, in practice,
the forfeiture program sets its own budget and can spend, without meaningful
oversight, all of the excess funds it raises from previous years," U.S.
District Judge James O. Browning wrote in an order filed
Saturday. "Thus, there is a 'realistic possibility' that forfeiture
officials' judgment 'will be distorted by the prospect of institutional
gain'—the more revenues they raise, the more revenues they can spend."
The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law
firm, filed the
lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of Arlene Harjo, whose car was seized after her son
drove it while drunk.
"It's a scam and a rip-off," Harjo told Reason at
the time. "They're taking property from people who just loan a vehicle to
someone. It's happened a lot. Everybody I've talked to has had it happen to
them or somebody they know, and everybody just pays."
Harjo was one of thousands of Albuquerque residents whose
cars were seized under the city's aggressive forfeiture program. While lawsuits
have forced cities like Philadelphia to reform their programs, federal judges
have for the most part been unwilling to directly address the issue of profit
incentive.
In a statement, Institute for Justice attorney Robert
Everett Johnson said the Institute "will undoubtedly use this decision to
attack civil forfeiture programs nationwide."
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