Court: Excess Cash in Car Can Be Taken By Police

Here is one court case that every American should be concerned about.

The Eighth Circuit court of Appeals has ruled that driving with large sums of cash is evidence of drug trafficking, and the money can be confiscated by authorities whether or not other evidence supports the illegal sale of drugs.

Now, the plaintiffs in the case clearly were very stupid. They were driving around with $125,000 in cash in the vehicle. They were stopped by police who confiscated the money after a police dog smelled drugs. However, there was no evidence that the drug scent was not merely left over from a previous owner. When you have that much cash, the chances are high that at least one bill was involved in a drug deal in the past. Nevertheless, the bills were confiscated even though the men were not charged.

They sued, and in this ruling the Appeals court reversed a lower court decision ruling the confiscation illegal.

Although this was clearly an unusual situation, in my mind this opens the door to a whole lot of police and local government corruption. The decision said that excess cash can be considered evidence of a crime. But what is an excess? Could $100 be considered unusual? Even $20?

As you can see, there are really no limits on what this decision could legalize. Hopefully this case will be appealed to the Supreme Court as there are some great civil liberties violations that could take place if this is allowed to stand. But until that happens, Americans would be wise to keep their hands on their wallets.