Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) announced the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act of 2017 (S. 642 and H.R. 1555) a comprehensive reform bill designed to protect innocent property owners from federal civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture has sparked a firestorm of controversy in recent years, earning criticism from figures and organizations as diverse as John Oliver, nearly 100 different editorial boards, both the Democratic and Republican Party platforms and, most recently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Under civil forfeiture, law enforcement agencies can seize property merely suspected of involvement in criminal activity. Unlike criminal forfeiture, civil forfeiture allows the government to permanently keep property without charging anyone with—let alone convicting them of—a crime. And federal law allows the seizing agencies to keep up to 100 percent of the proceeds from forfeited property.

“For too long, tens of thousands of Americans have lost their hard-earned savings, cars, businesses, and even their homes to an unjust civil forfeiture system,” said Scott Bullock,