Opinion ID: 452104
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The As Applied Attack

Text: 21 The district court also held that, as applied, sections 5.05 and 5.07 of the 1983 amendments to the Texas Controlled Substances Act did not deprive the plaintiffs of their constitutional right to due process. In so holding, the district court focused on the length of the delay (or expected delay) between the date of the seizures and the date of the three forfeiture hearings, which was between one and two and a half years after the respective dates of the various seizures. 22 The seminal case on this issue is United States v. Eight Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($8,850) in United States Currency, 461 U.S. 555, 103 S.Ct. 2005, 76 L.Ed.2d 143 (1983). The issue was whether a delay in a post-seizure hearing offended the Fifth Amendment right against deprivation of property without due process of law. In $8,850, the government waited eighteen months to file a civil proceeding for forfeiture of currency that a customs inspector seized from the claimant as she passed through customs. The claimant argued that the government's delay in filing violated her constitutional right to have a post-seizure hearing at a meaningful time. 23 The Supreme Court disagreed. Noting that there is no obvious bright line dictating when a post-seizure hearing must occur, id. at 562, 103 S.Ct. at 2011, the Court declared that the balancing test applicable to Sixth Amendment speedy trial claims articulated in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972), provides an appropriate framework for determining when a post-seizure delay deprives a property owner of his right to due process. The Barker test involves a weighing of four factors: length of delay, the reason for the delay, the [claimant's] assertion of his right, and prejudice to the [claimant]. $8,850, supra, at 564, 103 S.Ct. at 2012. 24 Applying this test, the Court held the claimant was not denied due process because (i) while the delay was quite significant, id., (ii) the government offered substantial reasons to support it (e.g., diligent pursuit of a criminal proceeding), (iii) the claimant never requested a prompt hearing, and (iv) the claimant failed to show that the delay prejudiced her ability to defend against the forfeiture on the merits. Id. at 566-70, 103 S.Ct. at 2013-15. 25 The district court in this case applied the same four-part test that the Supreme Court applied in $8,850. In doing so, the district court found that in regard to each of the three forfeiture proceedings (i) the length of the delay--from one to two-and-one-half years--is quite significant; (ii) the record is silent on the reasons for the delay, so that responsibility for it cannot be attributed to either the government or the plaintiffs; (iii) the plaintiffs conceded at trial that they never sought a hearing in state court in any of the forfeiture proceedings; and (iv) the plaintiffs offered no proof at trial to show that the delays had in any way prejudiced their ability to defend themselves against the forfeitures. Relying on these findings, the district court concluded that none of the delays deprived the plaintiffs of due process. 26 We think the district court's ruling is correct. In fact, in our view the plaintiffs' due process argument in this case is weaker than the argument advanced by the claimant in $8,850. In $8,850, the government failed to file for a forfeiture for eighteen months. Here the government filed shortly after the seizures. Thus, had the plaintiffs in this case sought a prompt forfeiture hearing, presumably they could have obtained one. They have introduced no evidence to the contrary. By contrast, the claimant in $8,850 could not have obtained a hearing for at least eighteen months, given the government's delay in filing. When this significant difference is combined with the fact that the plaintiffs here failed to show prejudice and failed to establish the government's responsibility for the delays, we cannot say that the delays alone amounted to a deprivation of due process or that the statute as applied was unconstitutional.