Tuesday, December 09, 2014

More On Use Of Eminent Domain To Write Down Unpaid Balances On Underwater Mortgages

From Public Citizen's Consumer Law & Policy Blog:
  • Robert C. Hockett of Cornell has written 'We Don't Follow, We Lead': How New York City Will Save Mortgage Loans by Condemning Them, 124 Yale Law Journal Forum 131 (2014).

    Here is the abstract:

    This brief invited essay lays out in summary form the eminent domain plan for securitized underwater mortgage loans that the author has been advocating and helping to implement for some years now. It does so with particular attention in this case to New York City, which is now actively considering the plan. The essay's first part addresses the plan's necessity. Its second part lays out the plan's basic mechanics. The third part then systematically addresses and dispatches the battery of remarkably weak legal and policy arguments commonly proffered by opponents of the plan.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Local D.C. Lawmakers Vote In Favor Of Overhauling City Forfeiture Laws In Effort To Crack Down On "Policing For Profit;" Some Law Enforcement Agencies View Legal Loopholes In Law Allowing Asset Seizures As Handy Source Of Slush Funds

In Washington, D.C., Forbes reports (via Public Citizen Consumer Law & Policy Blog):
  • The Council of the District of Columbia voted unanimously [last week] in favor of overhauling the city’s civil forfeiture laws, which lets police seize property from people never charged with a crime. Law enforcement can then pocket all of the proceeds gained from forfeiture.

    The Civil Asset Forfeiture Amendment Act of 2014 stabs at the heart of what makes civil forfeiture so potentially corrupting: Letting cops and prosecutors keep what they forfeit creates “at best, the appearance of a conflict of interest, and at worst, an unchecked incentive for slush funds,” remarked Councilman Tommy Wells, who authored the reform.

    If the bill becomes law, Washington, D.C. would join just eight states that ban policing for profit. Rather than padding law enforcement budgets, any revenue generated with civil forfeiture instead would be deposited into the general fund.
For more, see Washington, D.C. Council Votes to Reform City's Civil Forfeiture Laws, Ban Policing for Profit.

See also:
Go here for some earlier posts on civil forfeiture. forfeiture feds