HR 540 · 114th Congress · Crime and Law Enforcement

FAIR Act

Introduced 2015-01-27· Sponsored by Rep. Walberg, Tim [R-MI-7]· House

Bill Progress

Introduced
2
Committee
3
House Vote
4
Senate
5
Enacted
Latest: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.(2015-02-19)

Plain Language Summary

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act of 2015 or the FAIR Act This bill modifies general rules governing civil forfeiture proceedings to: (1) ensure that a person contesting a civil forfeiture has legal representation without regard to whether the property subject to forfeiture is being used by such person as a primary residence; (2) increase the federal government's burden of proof in civil forfeiture proceedings to clear and convincing evidence; (3) require the government, in addition to showing a substantial connection between the seized property and an offense, to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the owner of any interest in the seized property used the property with intent to facilitate the offense or knowingly consented or was willfully blind to the use of the property by another in connection with the offense; and (4) expand the proportionality criteria used by a court to determine whether a civil forfeiture was constitutionally excessive. To remove incentives for carrying out civil forfeitures, the bill requires proceeds from the disposition of seized property to be deposited into the General Fund of the Treasury, rather than to Department of Justice acco…

Summarized by Claude AI · Non-partisan · For informational purposes only

Cosponsors (20)

8 Democrats12 Republicans