How the Government Can ‘Come and Take It’: Asset Forfeiture and How Texas Should Change Its Practice

As a model of review, this Comment will use Texas’s laws—juxtaposed against state laws that are providing more protections—to compare what Texas is doing wrong in light of what other states are doing right. First, this Comment will give a brief history of asset forfeiture in general and provide the status of civil asset forfeiture in the twentyfirst century. Part II will discuss the benefits of some asset forfeiture programs while highlighting the shortcomings and burdens that civil asset forfeiture brings. Part III will show state legislation aimed at curtailing civil asset forfeiture and the factors that make Texas’s laws (arguably) among the worst in the country. Finally, Part IV will discuss what Texas and similar states should do to improve the protections afforded to property owners and also improve the use of forfeiture overall