§ 131A.035 Seizure of currency

If you have less than $15,000 in cash, the police can't take that money away from you for forfeiture just because it happens to be cash instead of a check, money order, or some other form of payment. Simply carrying cash isn't a good enough reason by itself to seize it.

This matters because in the past, law enforcement sometimes treated carrying a lot of cash as suspicious on its own, even without other evidence of a crime. This rule says that's not allowed for amounts under $15,000. Police need a real reason connected to actual criminal activity, not just the fact that someone is holding cash.

If your cash gets seized and the only reason given is that it was cash and under $15,000, this rule gives you grounds to challenge that seizure and get your money back.