quotas—that would have to be filled whether there were enough criminals to go around or not. The inevitable consequence of this process was evident in one 1990 Justice Department memo to all U.S. Attorneys: “We must significantly increase our forfeiture production to reach our budget target. Every effort must be made to increase forfeiture income in the three remaining months of fiscal year 1990.”^[22]  It was a return to the halcyon days of medieval criminal justice. Generations of property rights going back to the Magna Carta were set aside in the name of legal efficiency. It was now possible for anyone—hostile neighbor or greedy cop—to have you kicked out of your own house. All they had to do was accuse you of buying the place with drug money.  No proof would be required.  No conviction.  No evidence. Suspicion alone would be enough to land you and your family in the street. In case you happened to be innocent and wanted the place back, the burden of proof and the legal fees would be on you. If you couldn’t account for every payment, the house could be sold at auction and if your neighbor was the one who turned you in, he might be eligible to split the take with the police. It was, in fact, this is the very act—using seizures to finance the King’s army—that led Hancock and Jefferson and Adams to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.^[23] If they were with us today, they would surely be at our throats.

Not surprisingly, tales of official chicanery started rolling in almost immediately. The vast majority of cases seldom hit the papers, but every once in a while lawmen would break down the wrong door and the whole country would get a glimpse of asset forfeiture close up. The L.A. County Sheriff’s raid that killed reclusive millionaire Don Scott was particularly revealing.  The 200 acres of sagebrush and chaparral that Scott owned may not have been much to look at, but as they say in the real estate business, location, location, location. Trail’s End Ranch ran along the spine of the coastal mountains above Malibu, and its rolling crestline hills were coveted by a number of parties including the National Park Service. Scott repeatedly refused to