Short Circuit 423 | Civil Forfeiture Flowcharts

About this episode

The episode discusses civil forfeiture, recent legal cases, and the implications of qualified immunity.

The Institute for Justice is once again taking a close look at civil forfeiture. One of IJ’s leaders in our civil forfeiture work, Dan Alban, joins us to outline our new report Policing for Profit 4 . Some listeners may be familiar with previous editions but, as Dan explains, in this one there’s a lot of new information and analysis, especially how civil forfeiture works procedurally and how those procedures fail the Supreme Court’s mandate that they be “timely.” Dan also discusses a recent Sixth Circuit case involving Bitcoin and civil forfeiture and how innocent owners of crypto are sometimes caught up in the forfeiture process. Then Marie Miller of IJ discusses a recent Seventh Circuit case about another government abuse near and dear to our hearts: qualified immunity. Some officers raided a rural Wisconsin property where they tackled a suspect and then “accidentally” (that’s disputed) hit him in the head with the butt of an M16. The court says with the facts being in dispute to a jury the case should go. Policing for Profit 4 U.S. v. 0.40401694 Bitcoin Steinhoff v. Malovrh Culley v. Marshall Indiana parcel forfeiture case BBO episode Pierson to Pearson

People in this episode

Guests: Dan Alban, Marie Miller

Topics covered

• civil forfeiture
• legal analysis
• qualified immunity
• Bitcoin
• government abuse
• Supreme Court
• law enforcement

Keywords

• civil forfeiture
• Policing for Profit
• qualified immunity
• Bitcoin
• Sixth Circuit
• Seventh Circuit
• law enforcement procedures
• Supreme Court mandate
• government abuse

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Justice

Books & works: Policing for Profit 4

More episodes of Short Circuit

• Short Circuit 432 | Moth-Eaten Precedent · June 12, 2026 · 44 min
• Short Circuit 431 | Hard but not Impossible · June 5, 2026 · 52 min
• Short Circuit 430 | Stateless in Seattle · May 29, 2026 · 47 min
• Short Circuit 429 | A Fifth of Circuit · May 22, 2026 · 59 min
• Short Circuit 428 | Shopping With Roy Moore · May 15, 2026 · 51 min
• Short Circuit 427 | Michigander Administrations · May 8, 2026 · 54 min