Estate of Denial: We’ve written before about the growing use of civil asset forfeitures – a means by which government confiscates private property. From local governments to the feds, it’s happening in numerous jurisdictions across the U.S.

In Motel Is Latest Stopover in Federal Forfeiture Battle, The Wall Street Journal discussed one Massachusetts motel owner’s struggle to keep a business owned and operated by his family since the 1950s. Per the article, “Civil rights groups, libertarians and attorneys defending against seizures say the government is overstepping its bounds in a practice that has swelled in the past decade to encompass some 400 federal statutes, covering crimes from drug trafficking to racketeering to halibut poaching.”