The Appellate Division today upheld the constitutionality of New Jersey’s criminal forfeiture law, unanimously reversing a Cumberland County lower court opinion that invalidated the statute in the case of State v. One Ford Thunderbird. Simply put, criminals should not profit from crime and should not be permitted to keep property bought with the proceeds of criminal behavior.

The appellate court rejected the claim that the forfeiture statute violates due process because forfeiture proceeds go directly to prosecutor’s and law enforcement agencies. The court recognized that “prosecutors, in an adversary system, are necessarily permitted to be zealous in their enforcement of the law.” The court further held that “standards promulgated and administered by the Attorney General provide adequate generalized safeguards against use of the forfeiture process as a budget-increasing mechanism or any global incentive to proceed arbitrarily, capriciously or unreasonably.” Finally, the judges determined, as our office argued, judicial review of civil forfeiture actions protects the rights of all parties to the dispute.

I am gratified by the Appellate Division’s opinion. The United States Supreme Court has explicitly recognized that government has a legitimate interest not only in separating criminals from their ill-gotten gains, but in using the profits of crime to fund law enforcement activities. Various state legislatures and Congress have adopted such laws. New Jersey, in reflection of this strong public policy, amended the forfeiture law in 1985 to allow the distribution of forfeited property directly to law enforcement entities. This approach provides funding for law enforcement expenses as an alternative to higher taxes. And, as today’s ruling states, the challenges to the law were simply insufficient to “overcome the presumption that public officials, when following statutorily established procedures, are proceeding in good faith and in a proper exercise of the power and discretion reposed in them.”

The forfeiture law has served the public by taking the profit out of crime and providing law enforcement with essential resources to continue to protect the public from drug kingpins who buy houses and cars using the proceeds of narcotics trafficking. The corporate officer who fraudulently inflates stock prices and cashes in is not entitled to the ill-gotten gains. The thief cannot keep the stolen money. And the terrorist who uses a bank account to fund terrorist activities must lose access to the tool used to fund the terrorism. Today, the Appellate Division has rightfully restored this law’s legitimacy and vitality.