Two barely reported executive actions from this past month provide telling examples: Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s resurrection of civil asset forfeiture, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s (I still can’t believe that) mind-blowing proposal of corporate welfare for coal companies.

“Civil asset forfeiture” may sound arcane, but it’s one of those police-state policies where liberals and libertarians both find plenty to hate. Essentially, it allows local and state police departments to seize any assets that might be part of a criminal operation – even without the suspect being charged, let alone convicted, of a crime.

Officially, asset forfeiture is supposed to help the cops shut down big, ongoing drug operations. In practice, however, it’s used primarily against poor people who have committed minor offenses. A 2015 study conducted in Philadelphia, for example, found that the median value of seized assets was $192, and most assets came from the city’s poorest neighborhood.