IJ Win Closes Civil Forfeiture Loophole In Nevada

Stephen Lara’s life savings were seized in February 2021. IJ made sure Stephen got his money back, and—after nearly four years of litigation—a Nevada court has ruled that the government violated state law when it took his money. It’s a landmark ruling that will have repercussions across the Silver State and beyond, reining in a pernicious legal loophole that law enforcement uses to disregard property rights.

Stephen is a Marine Corps veteran who was traveling to spend time with his daughters when he was pulled over outside Reno, Nevada, on a bogus traffic stop. The Nevada Highway Patrol officer asked intrusive questions unrelated to traffic safety, and Stephen honestly told the officer he was traveling with his life savings in cash. Even though Stephen had copious documentation that his money came from his legitimate paychecks and veterans benefits, the Highway Patrol seized his money. But it didn’t follow Nevada law.

Instead, it used a loophole called “equitable sharing,” under which state law enforcement hands seized property to the federal government to forfeit under federal law. This procedure evades any state-law protections for property owners—and the feds return up to 80% of the proceeds to state law enforcement to use virtually however they want. In effect, the federal government pays state officials to disregard state law—to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Nevada law is far from perfect in protecting property owners against civil forfeiture abuses. But it does provide critical safeguards, including requiring a real judge to rule on all forfeitures; giving property owners an avenue to challenge a seizure within 60 days; setting a high burden of proof on the government to forfeit property; and imposing reporting requirements to improve transparency. But thanks to federal equitable sharing, state officials can side-step all those critical protections for Nevadans’ property rights.

Together, IJ and Stephen sued the federal government to get his life savings back—and following seven months of silence, the government finally returned his cash the day after we filed suit. 

But we also sued the Nevada Highway Patrol in state court to ensure that this never happens to anybody else. Our claim was simple: The state Legislature did not intend to allow an end-run around its protections for property rights through equitable sharing.

In January 2025, a state trial court agreed. It held that it is unlawful “for Nevada to participate in the federal equitable sharing program.” The court issued an injunction barring the Highway Patrol “from participating in the federal equitable sharing program until and unless they achieve full compliance with Nevada’s statutory requirements.”

This is a groundbreaking decision—the first by a court to recognize that state property rights protections can’t be circumvented through the equitable sharing loophole. The court’s reasoning would apply to law enforcement statewide in Nevada—and in several other states with similar laws.

Meanwhile, Stephen’s case continues. He has other claims that the government violated the state Constitution in seizing his life savings, and he intends to fight to the state Supreme Court if necessary to ensure nobody else’s property rights are violated. But this latest victory is a critical step in ensuring that when states act to protect property owners, those protections must be respected.

Ben Field is an IJ attorney.