Decision below. Story at Reuters. Excerpt from story:
(Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of criminal defendants facing federal charges to challenge a court's decision to freeze their assets before trial.
By a 6-3 vote, the court said defendants cannot use a pretrial hearing to challenge a grand jury's finding that there was probable cause that they committed a crime that required forfeiture.
The court's ruling did not alter existing law allowing defendants to ask courts to release seized assets if the funds in question cannot be traced to the alleged crime.
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The federal government had said in court papers that a ruling for the Kaleys would make it harder to seek restitution for victims, such as investors harmed by white-collar crime, after a defendant has used frozen assets to pay for legal expenses.
In the majority opinion, Justice Elena Kagan said that if the court had ruled for the Kaleys it would have "strange and destructive consequences" because judges would effectively be able to second-guess grand jury findings.