Prior restraint.

Here's one for you legal types:

Dude pleads guilty to scalping four tickets to the Kentucky Derby. In Kentucky, ticket scalping is illegal, but it is not illegal across the state line in Indiana. He gets caught and pleads guilty. Case over, right?

No. The police siezed more than 400 additional tickets, all obtained legally. They claim the tickets are evidence in an ongoing investigation and refuse to return the tickets to the guy. What's ongoing about it? He pled guilty and the case is over.

I have a sneaking suspicion the investigation will be over shortly after the running of the Kentucky Derby May 6th.

He assures the police he will dispose of the tickets legally. We can infer from this that he will go across the state line into Indiana and sell them, for a tidy profit. They still don't return the tickets to him.

By what authority are they keeping his tickets? He did not use those 400+ tickets in the commission of a crime. Maybe he intended to, maybe he didn't. Unless the police have a Vulcan on staff who can mindmeld with him, they can't prove he did. Are they keeping the tickets because he MIGHT use them in the commission of a crime in the future? If so, don't we have a prohibition of prior restraint here in America?

The whole idea of making ticket scalping illegal bothers me. Is selling your used car "car scalping"? How about "stock scalping?" And all that "tchotchke scalping" at yard sales and flea markets? You have a willing buyer and a willing seller. Whose rights are violated?