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Seriously?

That sort of defeats the entire point of the 5th amendment. At best, it should perhaps signal an investigation may be called for, but I'd argue that civil asset forfeiture is misqualified as a civil case if that is the case, as the admission of adverse inference against a plaintiff in a civil case would further tilt the scales of justice in favor of the government, which if we're really being honest here, does not need the help.




> That sort of defeats the entire point of the 5th amendment.

Not really -- civil matters aren't matters of crime (it's not illegal to divorce your spouse), so it makes sense on the surface that protections against self incrimination don't apply.

The problem here is civil asset forfeiture itself, which should be either completely illegal or at the very least subject to a higher standard of proof than it currently is.




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