Legal Question in Criminal Law in Illinois

Sorry, but I can't agree. Your car was temporarily seized, and you just might have an argument that the seizure was unreasonable and thus contrary to the Fourth Amendment. But there is no reason to think the officer intended to keep your car, so it wasn't a taking (which would be subject to the Fifth Amendment).

If the officers found evidence of certain types of crime the prosecutors could seek an order forfeiting your vehicle, but they could only get such an order after a trial at which you could oppose their efforts. At that point you still would have a taking, since the government would have deprived you of the car as a punishment and not "for public use". And even if such a forfeiture did amount to a taking, you would have received due process of law as the Fifth Amendment requires.

By your logic, the government could never seize evidence and would have to compensate criminal defendants for any fines or forfeitures the courts impose. Such a rule would cripple the criminal justice system and would serve no useful purpose. It also clearly is not how our criminal justice system really operates.

I just re-read my answer and found an important typo. In the middle of the second paragraph, I wrote "At that point you still would have a taking...." What I should have said was "At that point you still would *not* have a taking...." What I meant should have been clear from the context, but I want to correct the error just in case.