United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U.S. 43, 36 (1993)

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78

UNITED STATES v. JAMES DANIEL GOOD REAL PROPERTY Opinion of O'Connor, J.

Fifth Amendment, on the other hand, is concerned with deprivations of property interests; for due process analysis, it should not matter whether the property to be seized is real or personal, home or not. The relevant inquiry is into the governmental interference with the owner's interest in whatever property is at issue, an intrusion that is minimal here.

Moreover, it is difficult to see what advantage a preseizure adversary hearing would have had in this case. There was already an ex parte hearing before a magistrate to determine whether there was probable cause to believe that Good's property had been used in connection with a drug trafficking offense. That hearing ensured that the probable validity of the claim had been established. Cf. Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp. of Bay View, 395 U. S. 337, 343 (1969) (Harlan, J., concurring). The Court's concern with innocent owners (see ante, at 55-56) is completely misplaced here, where the warrant affidavit indicated that the property owner had already been convicted of a drug offense involving the property. See App. 29-31.

At any hearing—adversary or not—the Government need only show probable cause that the property has been used to facilitate a drug offense in order to seize it; it will be unlikely that giving the property owner an opportunity to respond will affect the probable-cause determination. Cf. Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U. S. 103, 121-122 (1975). And we have already held that property owners have a due process right to a prompt postseizure hearing, which is sufficient to protect the owner's interests. See $8,850, supra, at 564-565; Von Neumann, 474 U. S., at 249.

The Government's interest in the property is substantial. Good's use of the property to commit a drug offense conveyed all right and title to the United States, although a judicial decree of forfeiture was necessary to perfect the Government's interest. See United States v. Parcel of Rumson, N. J., Land, 507 U. S. 111, 125-127 (1993) (plurality opinion); cf. Doehr, supra, at 16 (noting that the plaintiff

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