Seizing Russian Property at the Cost of Trashing the Constitution

For those disturbed by the confiscation of property without due process, the Editorial piece written by Judge Andrew Napolitano will hit the mark. 

Napolitano talks about how the seizure frenzy of Russian oligarchs is a terrible violation of restraints placed on the US government under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Bill of Rights.

We witnessed last week the questionable case Ex-president of Honduras extradited to US on drugs charges

It seems the end justifies the means to get the desired result with this Department of Justice.

This from our “Justice Department.”

To put an exclamation mark on it, the department added this clip without sound so we could enjoy the fruits of their labor:

$90 Million Yacht of Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Viktor Vekselberg Seized by Spain at Request of United States

Some key excerpts from Judge Andrew Napolitano’s column below…

I have argued in this column and elsewhere that the Biden administration sanctions imposed on Russian and American persons and businesses are profoundly unconstitutional because they are imposed by executive fiat rather than by legislation and because the sanctions constitute either the seizure of property without a warrant or the taking of property without due process.

When the feds seize a yacht from a person whom they claim may have financed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, they are doing so in direct violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Similarly, when they freeze Russian assets in American banks, they engage in a seizure, and seizures can only constitutionally be done with a search warrant based on probable cause of crime.

As well, when the feds interfere with contract rights by prohibiting compliance with lawful contracts, that, too, implicates due process and can only be done constitutionally after a jury verdict in the government’s favor, at a trial at which the feds have proved fault…

…As if to run even further away from constitutional norms, a group of legal academics began arguing last week that the property seized from Russians is not really owned by human beings, but by the Russian government. And, this crazy argument goes, since the Russian government is not a person, there is no warrant or due process requirement; therefore, the feds can convert the assets they have seized and frozen to their own use.

To these academics — who reject property ownership as a moral right and exalt government aggression as a moral good — the argument devolves around the meaning of the word “person.” The Fourth and Fifth Amendments protect every “person” and all “people,” not just Americans…

Read the rest of Napolitano’s editorial here.   Well worth the full read.

H/T: Zero Hedge

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