Drug Policy Opinion: Page 11

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Drug Policy Opinion

Statements found in Court opinions regarding illicit substances. Public policy considerations, individual predilections of the Justice writing the opinion, the objective and subjective views on the the drugs, the drug use and the drug war... All of these can be found in this section.

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United States v. Sokolow (1989)
The Honorable Justice MARSHALL, with whom JUSTICE BRENNAN joins, dissenting:

...[N]othing about the characteristics shown by airport traveler Sokolow reasonably suggests that criminal activity is afoot. The majority's hasty conclusion to the contrary serves only to indicate its willingness, when drug crimes or antidrug policies are at issue, to give short shrift to constitutional rights.

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Opinion by: BLACKMUN

...Congress has chosen to tie forfeiture directly to the commission of drug offenses. Thus, under § 881(a)(4), a conveyance is forfeitable if it is used or intended for use to facilitate the transportation of controlled substances, their raw materials, or the equipment used to manufacture or distribute them. Under § 881(a)(7), real property is forfeitable if it is used or intended for use to facilitate the commission of a drug-related crime punishable by more than one year's imprisonment.

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Opinion by: BLACKMUN

When it added subsection (a)(7) [providing for forfeiture of real property implicated in a drug-related crime] to § 881 in 1984, Congress recognized "that the traditional criminal sanctions of fine and imprisonment are inadequate to deter or punish the enormously profitable trade in dangerous drugs."

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Opinion by: BLACKMUN

[Regarding the argument that "the forfeited assets serve to compensate the Government for the expense of law enforcement activity and for its expenditure on societal problems such as urban blight, drug addiction, and other health concerns resulting from the drug trade"] We previously have upheld the forfeiture of goods involved in customs violations as "a reasonable form of liquidated damages." One Lot Emerald Cut Stones v. United States, 409 U.S. 232, 237, 34 L. Ed. 2d 438, 93 S. Ct. 489 (1972). But the dramatic variations in the value of conveyances and real property forfeitable under §§ 881(a)(4) and (a)(7) [drug crimes asset forfeiture statutes] undercut any similar argument with respect to those provisions. The Court made this very point in Ward: the "forfeiture of property . . . a penalty that has absolutely no correlation to any damages sustained by society or to the cost of enforcing the law." 448 U.S., at 254.

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Opinion by: O'CONNOR

When Congress enacted the current version of § 924(c)(1) [using firearms during a drug transaction], it was no doubt aware that drugs and guns are a dangerous combination. In 1989, 56 percent of all murders in New York City were drug related; during the same period, the figure for the Nation's Capital was as high as 80 percent.

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