Court Opinion

ID: 9481022
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:05:38.433606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:03.247157
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment and in Judge Cummings’ careful opinion. I write separately only to emphasize that the most difficult questions presented by this appeal need not be addressed because they have been waived. Under other circumstances, the government’s constitutional arguments here might appear overly expansive. For example, at oral argument the government suggested that 18 U.S.C. § 1955 would authorize it to seize the King Ranch, a legendary Texas spread covering hundreds of square miles, were it to detect an illegal crap game in one stable. Such a broad construction of the statute — if seriously espoused — could raise significant constitutional questions.1
Civil forfeiture actions have traditionally proceeded upon the theory that property devoted to criminal activity may itself be found guilty of wrongdoing. See United States v. U.S. Coin & Currency, 401 U.S. 715, 91 S.Ct. 1041, 28 L.Ed.2d 434 (1971). The Supreme Court has occasionally pierced this legal fiction, however, to recognize the quasi-criminal nature of in rem actions and accord them fourth and fifth amendment protections generally reserved for criminal proceedings. E.g., id. at 718, 91 S.Ct. at 1043 (acknowledging that “ ‘proceedings instituted for the purpose of declaring the forfeiture of a man’s property by reason of offences [sic] committed by him, though they may be civil in form, are in their nature criminal’ for Fifth Amendment purposes”) (quoting Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 634, 6 S.Ct. 524, 534, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886) (emphasis supplied in Coin & Currency)); Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 85 S.Ct. 1246, 14 L.Ed.2d 170 (1964); Boyd v. United *1299States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886). The Constitution may not be implicated when the government merely confiscates property directly tied to a crime, such as a gun or a car. But I agree with the Second Circuit that “[a]t some point, it seems that a forfeiture would cross the line of condemning an instrumentality of crime and move into the area of punishing a defendant by depriving him of his estate.” United States v. Property at 4492 S. Livonia Road, 889 F.2d 1258, 1270 (2d Cir.1989). In this regard, the Supreme Court has in recent years eschewed the rigid labels of “civil” or “criminal” when examining significant constitutional interests. See United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 1901, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989) (“the labels ‘criminal’ and ‘civil’ are not of paramount importance ... [for] [i]t is commonly understood that civil proceedings may advance punitive as well as remedial goals”). The Court has instead attempted to plumb the underlying nature of the proceeding and evaluate the purposes actually served by the sanction to determine whether it constitutes criminal punishment for the purpose, for example, of double jeopardy clause analysis. See id., 109 S.Ct. at 1901-1902 (holding that a civil sanction constitutes “punishment” when it furthers the dual goals of punishment — retribution and deterrence).
When the government exacts a forfeiture grossly disproportionate to the offense, eighth amendment analysis may be applicable even to a nominally civil proceeding. See United States v. Real Estate Known as 916 Douglas Ave., 903 F.2d 490, 495 (7th Cir.1990) (Flaum, J., concurring) (observing that “there might be situations where the application of the broadly-written [drug forfeiture] provision would raise eighth amendment concerns”); United States v. Property at 4492 S. Livonia Road, 889 F.2d 1258, 1270 (2d Cir.1989) (same); United States v. Premises Known as 3639-2nd St., 869 F.2d 1093, 1098 (8th Cir.1989) (Arnold, J., concurring) (noting that “one can imagine applications of the forfeiture statutes that would be so draconian as to violate the Excessive Fines Clause”). Cf. Browning-Ferris Indus, v. Kelco Disposal, Inc., — U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 2909, 2920, 106 L.Ed.2d 219 (1989) (suggesting that the eighth amendment’s excessive fines clause may apply to civil actions by the government to extract exorbitant forfeitures). It would defy common sense to prohibit disproportionate forfeiture of the property of a defendant who has been convicted of a criminal violation, see, e.g., United States v. Busher, 817 F.2d 1409 (9th Cir.1987) (finding the eighth amendment applicable to criminal forfeiture proceedings), while placing no limits on the power of government to seize any real estate related to an offense in an ostensibly civil in rem action.
Seizure of the On Leong building may not be disproportionate to the gambling offense here. It is, however, a three-story landmark structure with an unusual cultural history and substantial economic value. A forfeiture of this genre and magnitude may be authorized and appropriate, but it seems to me to mark a significant departure in the enforcement of 18 U.S.C. § 1955.

. Although the case before us does not afford the opportunity to determine the precise parameters of permissible forfeiture under section 1955, it is certainly not clear that the statutory reach is virtually unlimited. The government relies upon the body of law construing the drug forfeiture statute, 21 U.S.C. § 881, to support its expansive reading of section 1955. Unlike section 1955, however, section 881 specifically authorizes forfeiture of an entire tract of land regardless of the magnitude of the infraction. See 21 U.S.C. § 881(a)(7) (1990) (authorizing forfeiture of "[a]Il real property, including any right, title, and interest ... in the whole of any lot or tract of land ... used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit” a violation).