Please distribute this memo widely. Ask your family and friends to
      visit http://www.forfeiture.org as soon as possible. Thanks!


TO:      Interested persons

FROM:    Coalition to reform the federal [US] forfeiture laws

DATE:    Friday, March 3, 2000

SUBJECT: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee vote postponed until March 9.



Once again, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed its vote
on the forfeiture reform bill (S. 1931), this time until Thursday,
March 9. Key U.S. senators are still negotiating with the U.S.
Department of Justice to see if the bill can be amended to address the
Justice Department's concerns. (This is important because, ultimately,
President Clinton will consult with the Justice Department when
deciding whether to sign or veto the bill.)

If we are able to get a majority vote in the Senate Judiciary
Committee, then it is very likely that the full U.S. Senate will also
pass the bill. (A forfeiture reform bill already passed the U.S. House
of Representatives in June.)

As you may know, current law allows federal agents to take your
property without convicting you of -- or even charging you with --
a crime. In 85% of federal asset forfeiture cases, the owner of the
property is never charged with a crime, yet government officials
can -- and usually do -- keep the seized property for their own use.
This is nothing short of "legal theft"!

MPP supports S. 1931 and the bill that already passed the House
because they would reduce the penalties that the government inflicts
upon marijuana users, as well as alleged and suspected marijuana
users. Oftentimes, DEA agents and other federal officials will seize a
car because they claim it was used to transport marijuana, or they
will seize someone's land because they claim that marijuana was grown
on it, yet the government fails to prove in court that such a crime
ever took place!



NEWS COVERAGE

  * On February 28, the editorial board of The New York Times endorsed
    S. 1931 with an editorial entitled "Forfeitures and Fairness."
    Please see <http://www.forfeiture.org>.

  * On March 2, the editorial board of The Washington Post also
    endorsed S. 1931 with an editorial entitled "Cars, Cash and Crime."
    Please see <http://www.forfeiture.org>.

  * On March 2, the policy.com Web site issued a briefing on forfeiture
    reform: http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc546.asp

  * On March 2, the Congressional Quarterly Daily Monitor (a
    Washington-insider publication) ran a story on the negotiations in
    Congress between proponents and opponents of forfeiture reform.



PROJECT #1

Since http://www.forfeiture.org was unveiled on February 10, more than
6,000 people have used it to send letters to their U.S. senators.
California residents have submitted 2,500 letters, and more than 500
letters each have been sent from Florida, New York, Pennsylvania,
Texas, and Washington. In addition, the forfeiture site of the Drug
Reform Coordination Network <http://www.drcnet.org/forfeiture/> has
generated another 1,000 letters to the U.S. Senate. And the ACLU's Web
site <http://aclu.org/action/assets106.html> has also generated
thousands of letters in favor of S. 1931.

If you haven't already done so, please visit http://www.forfeiture.org
to send a letter in support of S. 1931 to your two U.S. senators.

With the click of a couple of buttons, you can send a pre-written
letter to your two U.S. senators in less than two minutes. Thank you!



PROJECT #2

Would you please forward this entire e-mail message to your friends,
family, and colleagues?



PROJECT #3

If you have some extra time, please visit the "letters to the editor"
link on the front page of http://www.forfeiture.org to send a pre-
written letter to your local newspapers.



WHO IS ON THE U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE?

The following six committee members have already indicated their
support of the Hatch/Leahy forfeiture reform bill (S. 1931):
   - Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
   - Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)
   - Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin)
   - Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)
   - Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
   - Bob Smith (R-New Hampshire)

The following five committee members are opposed to the bill:
   - Joe Biden (D-Delaware)
   - Dianne Feinstein (D-California)
   - Charles Schumer (D-New York)
   - Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)
   - Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina)

And the following seven committee members are undecided:
   - Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan) .... 202-224-4822 / fax 202-224-8834
   - John Ashcroft (R-Missouri) ...... 202-224-6154 / fax 202-228-0998
   - Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) ............ 202-224-2315 / fax 202-224-6519
   - Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) ......... 202-224-5653 / fax 202-224-9787
   - Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) ............. 202-224-4521 / fax 202-228-1239
   - Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) .. 202-224-4254 / fax 202-228-1229
   - Robert Torricelli (D-New Jersey)  202-224-3224 / fax 202-224-8567

- end -



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