450
Opinion of the Court
all that reasonably could be expected to prevent the proscribed use of his property." 416 U. S., at 689. But she concedes that this comment was obiter dictum, and "[i]t is to the holdings of our cases, rather than their dicta, that we must attend." Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of America, 511 U. S. 375, 379 (1994). And the holding of Calero-Toledo on this point was that the interest of a yacht rental company in one of its leased yachts could be forfeited because of its use for transportation of controlled substances, even though the company was " 'in no way . . . involved in the criminal enterprise carried on by [the] lessee' and 'had no knowledge that its property was being used in connection with or in violation of [Puerto Rican Law].' " 416 U. S., at 668. Petitioner has made no showing beyond that here.
Justice Stevens' dissent argues that our cases treat contraband differently from instrumentalities used to convey contraband, like cars: Objects in the former class are forfeitable "however blameless or unknowing their owners may be," post, at 459, but with respect to an instrumentality in the latter class, an owner's innocence is no defense only to the "principal use being made of that property," post, at 461. However, this Court's precedent has never made the due process inquiry depend on whether the use for which the instrumentality was forfeited was the principal use. If it had, perhaps cases like Calero-Toledo, in which Justice Douglas noted in dissent that there was no showing that the "yacht had been notoriously used in smuggling drugs . . . and so far as we know only one marihuana cigarette was found on the yacht," 416 U. S., at 693 (opinion dissenting in part), might have been decided differently.
The dissent also suggests that The Palmyra line of cases "would justify the confiscation of an ocean liner just because one of its passengers sinned while on board." Post, at 462. None of our cases have held that an ocean liner may be confiscated because of the activities of one passenger. We said in Goldsmith-Grant, and we repeat here, that "[w]hen such
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