“Let’s be clear on this one point: Civil-asset forfeiture is an evil,” a writer declared in March on the conservative op-ed page of the Washington Examiner, even as Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Tim Walberg introduced reform legislation. “It’s not a pro-police program; it’s a constitutional evil. It gives law enforcement the right to strip Americans who’ve not been convicted of any crime—and in many cases, not even formally charged—of their properties, including cash, cars, homes, airplanes, boats, etc.”

It really is that bad. (And some states have passed reforms for that reason.)

Yet Attorney General Jeff Sessions just pledged to expand it. “Sessions said the Justice Department will issue new directives to increase the federal govenment's use of civil-asset forfeiture,” C.J. Ciaramella reports at Reason. “Speaking at a National District Attorneys Association conference in Minneapolis Monday, Sessions said state and local law enforcement could expect changes from U.S. Attorneys in several areas: increased prosecution of gun crimes, immigration offenses, gang activity, and prescription drug abuse, as well as increased asset seizure.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder had imposed new limits on the federal government’s role in civil-asset forfeiture. Those reforms did not go far enough. Now, although the particulars of the new policy have yet to be fleshed out, even those insufficient Obama-era protections for property owners are likely to be undone.

Sessions justified his position by declaring, “No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime.” But no one objects to that principle. As the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm that has represented numerous victims of civil-asset forfeiture abuse, argued in its sensible call for reform, “law enforcement should be required to convict people before taking their property. Law enforcement agencies could still prosecute criminals and forfeit their ill-gotten possessions—but the rights of innocent property owners would be protected.”

When President Obama appointed Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General, Marco Rubio declared, “I opposed Loretta Lynch’s nomination because of her failure to identify any limit on the president’s ability to ignore the laws passed by Congress as well as her obvious enthusiasm for civil-asset forfeiture, which can deprive innocent people of their property rights without due process.”

Senator Rand Paul stated, “People who are victims of civil forfeiture are often poor, African American or Hispanic, and people who can’t afford an attorney to try to get the money that’s taken from them by the government,” and Breitbart ran his argument it as an exclusive. The Heritage Foundation was pro-reform. The American Enterprise Institute too. Earlier this year, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner introduced reform legislation.