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fails to afford adequate due process protection to property owners who have been convicted of a crime that renders their real property susceptible to civil forfeiture under 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7). It reaches this conclusion although no such adversary hearing is required to deprive a criminal defendant of his liberty before trial. And its reasoning casts doubt upon long settled law relating to seizure of property to enforce income tax liability. I dissent from this ill-considered and disruptive decision.
I
The Court applies the three-factor balancing test for evaluating procedural due process claims set out in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U. S. 319 (1976), to reach its unprecedented holding. I reject the majority's expansive application of Mathews. Mathews involved a due process challenge to the adequacy of administrative procedures established for the purpose of terminating Social Security disability benefits, and the Mathews balancing test was first conceived to address due process claims arising in the context of modern administrative law. No historical practices existed in this context for the Court to consider. The Court has expressly rejected the notion that the Mathews balancing test constitutes a "one-size-fits-all" formula for deciding every due process claim that comes before the Court. See Medina v. California, 505 U. S. 437 (1992) (holding that the Due Process Clause has limited operation beyond the specific guarantees enumerated in the Bill of Rights). More importantly, the Court does not work on a clean slate in the civil forfeiture context involved here. It has long sanctioned summary proceedings in civil forfeitures. See, e. g., Dobbins's Distillery v. United States, 96 U. S. 395 (1878) (upholding seizure of a distillery by executive officers based on ex parte warrant); and G. M. Leasing Corp. v. United States, 429 U. S. 338 (1977) (upholding warrantless automobile seizures).
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