I don’t understand how #SCOTUS can make this obviously correct decision in a country where asset forfeiture is widespread. Progress, sure, but so much to do…
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/supreme-court-condo-taxes.html
Well, keep in mind the way #SCOTUS functions: it answers specific questions, that might have implications for others, but it's not ideally bound by answers it's not giving to questions it didn't accept.
Lower courts are to read those implications, hopefully correctly. Maybe this decision will cause lower courts to reject asset forfeiture if/when it's challenged, though.
The Court may have wanted to use this case, with an obviously correct answer, to move the needle in lower courts when it felt like the legal environment wasn't ready to attack the practice head-on.
The Court does act strategically.
