Cite as: 518 U. S. 267 (1996)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
where the forfeiture could properly be characterized as remedial. See United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U. S. 354, 364 (1984); One Lot Emerald Cut Stones v. United States, 409 U. S. 232, 237 (1972); see generally United States v. Halper, 490 U. S. 435, 446-449 (1989) (Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits second sanction that may not fairly be characterized as remedial)." 509 U. S., at 608, n. 4 (emphasis added).
In reality, both cases rejected the monolithic view that all in rem civil forfeitures should be treated the same, and recognized the possibility that other types of forfeitures that could not "properly be characterized as remedial" might constitute "an additional penalty for the commission of a criminal act." 465 U. S., at 366.
That possibility was not merely speculative. The Court had already decided that other constitutional protections applied to forfeitures that had a punitive element. In Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616 (1886), the Court held that compulsory production of an individual's private papers for use in a proceeding to forfeit his property for alleged fraud against the revenue laws violated both the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment's Self-Incrimination Clause. As the Court stated: "[P]roceedings instituted for the purpose of declaring the forfeiture of a man's property by reason of offences committed by him, though they may be civil in form, are in their nature criminal" and thus give rise to these constitutional safeguards. Id., at 634.
We reaffirmed Boyd twice during the span of time between our decisions in Various Items and 89 Firearms. In One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U. S. 693 (1965), the Court unanimously repeated Boyd's conclusion that "a forfeiture proceeding is quasi-criminal in character" and "[i]ts object, like a criminal proceeding, is to penalize for the commission of an offense against the law." The Court therefore held that the Fourth Amendment applied to a pro-
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