Swordsmyth
10-24-2017, 01:26 AM
In the latest blow against civil forfeiture, Judge Ronnie Abrams ruled (https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20171003e07) that New York City’s policy of seizing cars without warrants violated the owners’ Fourth Amendment rights. As part of a strategy to crack down on unlicensed taxis and other vehicles for-hire, between 2012 and 2015, inspectors for the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) seized nearly 25,000 cars they suspected were transporting passengers without the government’s permission. During that time, a medallion to own or lease a taxi cost over $1 million (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/16/are-taxi-medallions-too-big-to-fail-too.html), preventing many New Yorkers from running their own lawful cab companies.
Under the city’s administrative code, a car can be forfeited if the owner has previously violated the city’s for-hire vehicle code at least twice in the past 36 months. But when inspectors seized plaintiffs Susan Calvo and Kelly Macon’s cars, inspectors had no information on their histories. Nor had inspectors investigated any of their previous violations.
As Judge Abrams recounted, “the city has provided no evidence that the TLC inspectors who effected the seizures at issue had any reasonable basis for believing that Calvo or Macon had been ‘convicted’ of or ‘found liable’ for any prior violations at the time of the seizures.”
In fact, even the Commission’s Deputy Chief of Enforcement admitted in his deposition that inspectors “don’t look” at “whether or not [a] vehicle or [a] driver has been cited,” He further revealed that while inspectors could call to find out if “that vehicle has been seized before,” that information “does not play into any decision if that vehicle’s going to be seized or not.”
More at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2017/10/23/seizing-cars-without-warrants-violated-the-fourth-amendment-new-york-city-judge-rules/#4b33fc1645c9
Under the city’s administrative code, a car can be forfeited if the owner has previously violated the city’s for-hire vehicle code at least twice in the past 36 months. But when inspectors seized plaintiffs Susan Calvo and Kelly Macon’s cars, inspectors had no information on their histories. Nor had inspectors investigated any of their previous violations.
As Judge Abrams recounted, “the city has provided no evidence that the TLC inspectors who effected the seizures at issue had any reasonable basis for believing that Calvo or Macon had been ‘convicted’ of or ‘found liable’ for any prior violations at the time of the seizures.”
In fact, even the Commission’s Deputy Chief of Enforcement admitted in his deposition that inspectors “don’t look” at “whether or not [a] vehicle or [a] driver has been cited,” He further revealed that while inspectors could call to find out if “that vehicle has been seized before,” that information “does not play into any decision if that vehicle’s going to be seized or not.”
More at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2017/10/23/seizing-cars-without-warrants-violated-the-fourth-amendment-new-york-city-judge-rules/#4b33fc1645c9