Judge: Tennessee can't revoke licenses for unpaid court debt

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Jonathan Mattise, Associated Press
Updated 4:52 pm CDT, Tuesday, July 3, 2018

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials can't keep revoking the driver's licenses of people who can't pay off their court debts, a federal judge wrote Monday in a decision that could have wider implications for similar policies in dozens of other states.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger in Nashville wrote that revocations imposed under state law when a driver hasn't paid court debt for a year or more violate constitutional due process and equal protection rights and are "powerfully counterproductive."

Similar suspensions are allowed in more than 40 states. Lawsuits challenging them have been filed in at least five states over the past two years, contending that the punishments unfairly target poor people. The Tennessee class action case was brought on behalf of two indigent men affected by the law, James Thomas and David Hixson.

"If a person has no resources to pay a debt, he cannot be threatened or cajoled into paying it; he may, however, become able to pay it in the future," the judge wrote. "But taking his driver's license away sabotages that prospect."

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Judge-Tennessee-can-t-revoke-licenses-for-unpaid-13047643.php

[appalachiablue]

1. Great news Tenn. & good Judge Trauger. Thanks for the post Judi.

K & R. Happy Independence Day!

[LiberalLovinLug]

2. What a stupid law that was. Preventing people from transportation to work to pay off that debt

Or just purposely and insidiously enacted to create hundreds of catch 22's and downward spirals of poverty and debt....but they wouldn't do that would they?

[calimary]

6. A vicious circle for sure.

This ruling is good news.

Seems to me justice is supposed to be fair, not cruel.

[Orsino]

14. But a simple way to suppress more votes. n/t

[dewsgirl]

3. Does anyone know if Florida currently does this? I think they do, my husband's best friend

Got pulled over Saturday, turns out his license was suspended because of unpaid court fees from 2009. He had no idea.

[Pepsidog]

4. As an attorney I see this get played out in many ways. Unpaid fines result in license suspension and

often jail in the guise of contempt of court. So the judges says your going to jail because you disobeyed a court order to pay a fine.

[alwaysinasnit]

5. Our modern day debtors prison.

[blue-wave]

7. Yup, and don't forget, the 13th amendment

doesn't completely abolish slavery. You can be enslaved for "crimes."

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."


Who in the future tRumptopian world will be writing and interpreting the criminal statutes? Why have police departments become more anti-social? Why does the United States have 25% of the world's total prison population? Why are local governments and courts pushing harsher penalties for non-violent offenses? What are they attempting to accomplish? Will the "crime' clause in the constitution ever be used to enslave people again?

I know, I might sound paranoid or like a conspiracy nut, but I never thought I'd see our country being run and destroyed by the current bunch of whackadoodles. What is their goal?


Prison pop stat link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3425d4b2716e

[alwaysinasnit]

8. You're right.

We have to stop thinking that it (authoritarian government) can't happen here and realize that it already is happening.

[Pepsidog]

9. Exactly. It's shameful.

[MichMan]

10. So no longer any penalty for not paying?

How are they going to prove who is able to pay and just refuses to do so?

[dalton99a]

11. About time

[Demsrule86]

12. My daughter was having car trouble so we went to get her...we were behind her...and hubs

accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and rammed her...hit our own car! Despite my rather loud suggestions that he not do so... he called the police who gave him a ticket. We had to go to court...the judge dismissed all charges but we still had to pay court fees amounting to $150.00. Even though the charges were dropped, the judge said he could not overrule the fine. That is wrong. If a person is charged and the charges are dropped or if a person is found innocent, there should be no fine.

In the poorer areas, they fine you if you run out of gas or don't have white curtains in the front among other stupid reasons...people end up owing thousands...many who can't pay lose their licenses and some are locked up as well. This needs to end. This is policing for profit and has replaced income tax here in Ohio and elsewhere...a direct consequence to broken window policing which uses the poor as piggy banks for mostly right wing states who won't fund their states properly and instead rely on the poorest of the poor to pay the state bills. We could afford the ticket, but I was outraged. The kid who came up next went to jail for not paying court fees...it is so wrong.

I wanted to add one thing. Some years ago, I heard Tom Hartmann opine that there are too many laws and that any one of us can be locked up at anytime for something...which is what fascist scum buckets and dictators use to lock up people who disagree with them. He is right.

[MichMan]

13. He really called the cops on himself for hitting his own car....

.. and then fought it in court? What was the purpose ? smh

Not trying to be mean, but he almost deserves a $150 fine just for the absurdity of it & also for wasting the police and courts time.