I think Judge Bress is right.
The government wants civil forfeiture of $1,106,775 in cash that it seized from Oak Porcelli when it stopped him on I-80 in Nevada and found it vacuum-sealed in his SUV. Personally, I'm very inclined to believe that the government is correct that these funds are ill-gotten (and thus forfeitable), but that's what the trial's going to be about.
Prior to trial, the government propounded some interrogatories to Mr. Porcelli, as it's entitled to do. But there's obviously some potential self-incrimination at stake here. So the rule is that the interrogatories can only be about Mr. Porcelli's standing to object to the seizure, not its merits.
Mr. Porcelli says, yes, it's my money, and yes, I say it's mine, so yes, I have standing to contest the seizure. He also gives a tiny little bit of detail about where he contends the money legitimately came from: i.e., "by working in the movie industry for 15 years." But he didn't go into exhaustive detail. He says, though, that he doesn't have to: that if the only permissible issue is standing, then obviously he has standing, since he claims that the money is his, and that his responses are accordingly all that's required.
The trial court disagreed, and struck Mr. Porcelli's claim to the money as a sanction for his refusal/failure to answer the interrogatories completely. The Ninth Circuit affirms. Judge Bress dissents.
It seems to me that the dissent is correct. Here's the relevant legal rule: In civil forfeiture cases, the government can only use interrogatories to "seek information about a claimant’s standing— meaning, his 'identity and relationship to the defendant property.'" If that's the case (as it undoubtedly is), it seems to me sufficient to simply identify who you are, and that you claim to own it, and to provide the most minimal of details about how you got it; i.e., your "relationship to the property". Saying "I own it because I earned it through my work" seems entirely responsive (and sufficient). The rest is the merits, and for trial.
Judge Bress waxes poetic about the dangers of the majority's contrary approach, and there's a lot to be said for that.
But even just as a matter of text and purpose, the dissent seems more persuasive to me than the majority opinion. Mr. Porcelli's clearly got standing to object. He claims the money is his. Everything else is simply a fight about whether he's right that he earned the money legitimately.
