WP: Virginia suspends driver’s licenses in ‘unconstitutional scheme,’ class action says

[StrayKat]

After protests roiled Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 when a police officer killed an unarmed black teenager, law enforcement officials were criticized for serving as collection agents for state and local governments trying to raise revenue.

Now, in a month when the nation is reeling from the police-involved shootings of two black men and the deaths of five police officers in Dallas, a federal class action lawsuit is bringing the debate about the modern debtors’ prison to Virginia.

A suit filed July 6 against the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles alleges the DMV indefinitely suspends driver’s licenses of those too poor to pay fines and court costs in an “unconstitutional scheme.”

more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/virginia-suspends-drivers-licenses-in-unconstitutionl-scheme-class-action-says/2016/07/12/cf5d15d4-47b4-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_dmvlawsuit-830am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

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The article goes on to say:

The suit, filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center, which represents low-income Virginians, says more than 940,000 people in Virginia currently have their licenses suspended for nonpayment.

[littlebit]

1. Virginia is not the only state that does this.

My wife had her license suspended for not paying a fine in NC. I have a coworker who lost her license in TX last week for an unpaid ticket in Illinois.

[PatSeg]

2. Its pretty hard to get to work

to earn the money to pay those fines without a driver's license. A really dumb idea.

[littlebit]

3. Yes it is

My coworker is a truck driver. She is on leave right now while she tries to get everything straightened out. Illinois is telling her it will take 6 months. TX is telling her it should only take 30 days. The whole thing has turned into a nightmare for her.

[PatSeg]

4. It is about as effective

as debtor's prison. A lose-lose all around.

[Moonwalk]

9. It's also pretty hard to vote!

So. Stage 1, require voters to show i.d.--most notably a license (which already puts an impediment in front of those who are poor and likely to vote democrat). Stage 2...take away the license from those most likely to vote democrat....

I hope they get justice and licenses returned before November so they can vote out the bastards creating laws and systems like this.

[PatSeg]

12. Oh duh!

Why didn't I think of that? Insidious.

[Moonwalk]

13. I'm sure you would have thought of it....

...there's so many issues that come about without a D.L.--not being able to vote in certain states is just one on a long list.

[PatSeg]

15. I remember living in dread that something

would happen that would cause me to lose my driver's license. It seemed that many times I was being punished for being poor, often with the threat of being even poorer.

[Lithos]

5. Did they take it away from her?

Reason I ask is that the Driver's license is one of the few id's the GOP tends to accept for voter id. If they are arbitrarily taking it away for failure to pay a fine, does that not now make the fine a poll tax? You have to pay the fine to get your id to vote.

Seems also like it's an unreasonable attack on the poorer people...

[littlebit]

7. She still has the card

The TX DPS told her to hold onto it. If she tried getting an ID card she would have to give up her CDL. And getting it back would be very expensive and time consuming. Since the ticket in Illinois is over 10 years old TX trying to override the hold IL has on it.

[Lithos]

14. Good for them!

They sound like they are treating it appropriately...

[FighttheFuture]

6. Michigan had a ridiculous "Driver Responsibility Fee" for some time that would lead to

thousands of dollars to get a license back.

http://www.michigan.gov/driverresponsibility/0,1607,7-213-32169---,00.html


This is being phased out now, should be gone by 2018.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/10/driver_responsibility_fee_phas.html

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/05/death_penalty_for_drivers_mich.html

[StrayKat]

10. Good.

I'm glad to read this is being phased out in MI. It gives me hope that some progress can be made elsewhere.

Suspending licenses that people need in order to work and earn money to pay the bills in the first place is only making the matter worse.

[lark]

8. Yep, this happens all over the nation.

My son is a criminal for being poor, not paying fines, having his license suspended and driving to work anyway because he works odd hours and buses aren't available. Then he gets caught driving without a license and goes to jail. It's just sick! I even paid his fines, but then they resuspended his license saying paying the fines is admitting to guilt. I freaking HATE the criminal injustice system in this country.

[StrayKat]

11. I'm sorry about your son.

Being poor isn't a crime; we shouldn't have a system that acts like it is.

[lark]

16. Thanks