Don't Speed in Indiana

On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Timbs v. Indiana, a case that could have huge ramifications for the way states and local governments use civil asset forfeiture to target the property of suspected criminals. As most readers are probably aware, asset forfeiture is the process by which law enforcement can seize cars, cash, homes, and pretty much anything else that is suspected of being used to commit a crime or believed to be the proceeds of a crime. Often, suspects do not have to be convicted of anything—sometimes they aren't even charged—before they can be deprived of their property. To top it all off, law enforcement often has a perverse incentive to engage in this sort of thing because the proceeds of forfeiture can get plugged directly into their own budgets.

You can read a summary of the case here, but the gist is that the Solicitor General of Indiana is of opinion that if speeding is a crime, and technically it is, then the state is empowered to seize the vehicle being used to commit the crime (speeding) even if the speed in question is only 5 mph over the local speed limit. Heaven forfend; this sounds like something that Illinois would try to get away with instead.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons


I know people who claim that speed enforcement is all that Indiana does. Which is kind of ironic considering the Indianapolis 500 - which runs on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana. . .
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I remember driving along I-90 in Ohio and realizing I was passing all trucks and none of them were passing me. I then saw a speed limit sign that sadi trucks was 60MPH and all others 70MPH. Later on I read that long haul drivers would cut across Ontario to meet time schedules.
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which is why 1984 is not impressive - every inch of everything we do is insanely corrupt and nepotistic, without any influence whatsoever its cellular
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