Comment by mfer
19 hours ago
> That died last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction.
If the issue is one of jurisdiction, did they file the case in the wrong court?
Following local news, I've seen the case where a case is closed because it was filed in the wrong court. A different court had jurisdiction in the matter. I wonder if that's what happened in this case.
If you read the judgement it basically says that because the FBI eventually returned the money, she no longer has a live interest as an individual.
They also denied that she’s part of some well defined class for a class action. It’s not like they are saying there’s some other court she can go to.
US courts are generally infamous for denying justice whenever they see fit using technicalities like “standing” and other procedural grounds.
Environmental law violations, illegal surveillance programs, civil asset forfeiture like here, and constitutional violations are quite often practically impossible to get courts to address, especially if parts of the US government are the defendant.
>If you read the judgement it basically says that because the FBI eventually returned the money, she no longer has a live interest as an individual.
This is how NYC dodged a Bruen type ruling for so long.
There are different types of jurisdiction. Subject-matter, personal, venue, procedural, etc.
In this case, reading the opinion w/dismissal, there were two factors involved:
1) The court determined her individual claim was moot because the FBI had already discontinued the forfeiture proceedings & returned her seized property, with interest, before the appeal
2) Her class claim was also dismissed because no class had been certified before her individual claim became moot
Jurisdiction is a complicated word. What most people think of as jurisdiction is talking about law enforcement -- "you're out of your jurisdiction" -- to mean they are operating outside their geographical area.
That same term in law suits is called "venue", when you've filed in the wrong county, for instance.