Supreme Court Rejects Forfeiture Appeal in Synthetic Pot Case

The U.S. Supreme Court declined, over dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, to take on the issue of criminal forfeiture in a case involving over $1 million that stemmed from an investigation into Nebraska head shops owned by a mother and son that sold synthetic marijuana.

The question was whether federal law authorizes forfeiture imposed jointly and severally among co-conspirators, or whether a 2017 high court case forecloses such liability.

Because forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. § 853, a law that applies to certain drug crimes, is limited to property that the defendant himself acquired as a result of the crime, ...