Federal Adoption

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned effective immediately. His Chief of Staff, Matthew Whitaker, has been named as acting attorney general in his place. The AG, a champion of civil asset forfeiture—he reinstated a federal forfeiture program that had been restricted by Eric Holder, his predecessor. Without the attorney at the Department of Justice (DOJ), there is uncertainty over the future of this program.

The AG faced bipartisan opposition for his championing of civil asset forfeiture. “I’m amazed these people don’t get it. We had a reform in early 2001… relieved some of the concerns from our libertarians,” said the attorney general in 2017. The Obama administration, he continued, “actually curtailed this program for the last several years, but we’re going to keep it out there. And as long as we can, we will be doing it.”
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