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Matt Cooper and Harry Shearer

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Confiscation Without Representation

By Harry Shearer
Posted Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000, at 4:35 PM ET

Just saw on CNN that Virginia is leading the way in enforcing child-support obligations by booting the cars of deadbeats. Of course, the cause is good, but once again, as in forfeiture provisions of the War on Drugs, the means are--can I use a strong word here?--unconstitutional. The way I understand it, the government can't take your property without due process of law--which normally means that you're proved guilty of something in a proceeding that at least bears the outward trappings of a trial (those trappings would include, at a minimum, three days of coverage on Rivera Live).

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But, while I'm at it, does your city do what mine does--gate or block off certain residential streets, at the behest of the residents, to ward off the specter of commuters short-cutting through the neighborhood? Turning public streets into semi-private ones suggests that the taxpayers should be spared the cost of maintaining those roads. But, no. At least not yet. On these two issues, I'd suggest, we're an insufficiently litigious society.

Gore has claimed credit so far for being the hero of Love Story and for the discovery of the toxic waste at Love Canal. Can't you hear what he's really saying? It's an ill-disguised cry for love. I say, withhold.

Later,
Harry