Civil Forfeiture by the Numbers

105 ARTICLES:

Since August, 105 articles from across the country have mentioned IJ’s work on civil forfeiture, including seven op-eds written by IJ staff.

Some of the most popular national outlets to cover IJ’s work include: Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BBC World News, Vox, National Law Journal, Slate, Business Insider, Gawker, Daily Mail, CNN, the Associated Press, and Investor’s Business Daily.

9 EDITORIALS:

Nine newspapers have editorialized in favor of ending or reforming civil forfeiture: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Deseret News, The Richmond-Times Dispatch and Investor’s Business Daily. The Blaze put together a half-hour investigative documentary on civil forfeiture for its news channel and highlights IJ’s civil forfeiture cases in Michigan. The documentary also drew on additional IJ research and attorney interviews.

The Washington Post covered IJ’s civil forfeiture strategy summit in Washington, D.C., which was attended by representatives from the ACLU, Drug Policy Alliance, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, American Bar Association, Cato Institute, Marijuana Policy Project, Heritage Foundation, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, along with staffers from seven congressional offices.

We held a press conference to announce our Philadelphia lawsuit in August on Independence Mall, with Independence Hall and the federal courthouse in the background. The press conference was attended by the local ABC, CBS and FOX TV affiliates, CBS Radio, WHYY Radio, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Metro and the Associated Press.

24 IN 1 WEEK:

There were 24 print and online articles written about our Philadelphia forfeiture case within a week of the case’s launch, including an article and supportive editorial in Philadelphia Daily News and a front-page article, supportive editorial and IJ op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN aired a six-minute segment on the lawsuit.

The media coverage following the launch of the Philadelphia lawsuit prompted the District Attorney’s Office to issue a rare public statement. It also forced the office to make the head of Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture machine available for radio interviews, including a one-hour panel discussion on civil forfeiture on WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, Philadelphia’s most popular radio show.