Leonard v. Texas

Statement of Justice THOMAS respecting the denial of certiorari.

This petition asks an important question: whether modern civil-forfeiture statutes can be squared with the Due Process Clause and our Nation's history.

I

Early in the morning on April 1, 2013, a police officer stopped James Leonard for a traffic infraction along a known drug corridor. During a search of the vehicle, the officer found a safe in the trunk. Leonard and his passenger, Nicosa Kane, gave conflicting stories about the contents of the safe, with Leonard at one point indicating that it belonged to his mother, who is the…