‘“Civil asset forfeiture,” as practiced by contemporary American law enforcement officers is close kindred to many of the abusive practices of his colonial-era antecedents who confiscated property and harassed innocent people in name of the British Crown. Acting through specially constituted “admiralty courts” in which due process rights were ignored, and the plundered property itself was prosecuted, colonial customs agents would routinely seize shipping cargoes, store inventories, and money. Colonial patriots reacted to this practice by introducing colonial officials to the decorative properties of bitumen and goose feathers….‘ – William Grigg
