Cite as: 510 U. S. 43 (1993)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
"The power to distrain personal property for the payment of taxes is almost as old as the common law. . . . Why is it not competent for Congress to apply to realty as well as personalty the power to distrain and sell when necessary to enforce the payment of a tax? It is only the further legitimate exercise of the same power for the same purpose." Springer, supra, at 593-594.
There is likewise no basis for distinguishing between real and personal property in the context of forfeiture of property used for criminal purposes. The required nexus between the property and the crime—that it be used to commit, or facilitate the commission of, a drug offense—is the same for forfeiture of real and personal property. Compare 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(4) with § 881(a)(7); see Austin v. United States, 509 U. S. 602, 619-622 (1993) (construing the two provisions equivalently). Forfeiture of real property under similar circumstances has long been recognized. Dobbins's Distillery v. United States, 96 U. S. 395, 399 (1878) (upholding forfeiture of "the real estate used to facilitate the [illegal] operation of distilling"); see also United States v. Stowell, 133 U. S. 1 (1890) (upholding forfeiture of land and buildings used in connection with illegal brewery).
The Court attempts to distinguish our precedents by characterizing them as being based on "executive urgency." Ante, at 60. But this case, like all forfeiture cases, also involves executive urgency. Indeed, the Court in Calero-Toledo relied on the same cases the Court disparages:
"[D]ue process is not denied when postponement of notice and hearing is necessary to protect the public from contaminated food, North American [Cold] Storage Co. v. Chicago, 211 U. S. 306 (1908); . . . or to aid the collection of taxes, Phillips v. Commissioner, 283 U. S. 589 (1931); or the war effort, United States v. Pfitsch, 256 U. S. 547 (1921)." 416 U. S., at 679.
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