Luis v. United States
Luis v. United States, 578 U.S. ___ (2016), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the pre-trial restraint of assets needed to retain a defendant's counsel of choice when those assets have not been used in conjunction with criminal activity. Background United States federal law allows courts to freeze a criminal defendant's assets when that individual is accused of violating federal banking or healthcare laws. However, assets may only be seized if they are "traceable to the crime" or if the property is "obtained as a result" of the crime and the defendant is either in the process of disposing or alienating those assets or the defendant intends to dispose of or alienate those assets in the future. To freeze these assets, the Attorney General of the United States is authorized to initiate civil proceedings to obtain a restraining order that freezes these assets or "any such property or property of equivalent value". In 2012, Luis Sila was charged by a federal grand jury of committing various health care crimes. Federal prosecutors claimed that Luis fraudulently procured nearly $45 million; prosecutors alleged that Luis