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HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court says citizens have a right to trial by jury before the state can take private property in civil forfeiture cases, a ruling that bolsters a law that state legislators passed last year to limit police seizures.

Tuesday's unanimous ruling by the high court puts Montana in line with most other states that have upheld jury trials in civil forfeiture proceedings.

"After consideration of both American and English common law, federal jurisprudence and decisions from our sister states ... we join the majority of states and federal courts and conclude that there is a right to trial by jury," Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote in the opinion.

Law enforcement officials can seize land, money and other assets if they can show probable cause that the property was used in illegal activity. Critics such as the ACLU have said it allows police to profit from crime.

Civil forfeiture proceedings are filed against the property itself and had not required criminal charges against the property's owner until the Montana Legislature changed the law in 2015. Now, law enforcement officials are barred from taking any personal property before the owner is convicted of a crime.