12-24-2017, 04:15 AM
Can't pay your parking ticket? Of to jail you go..
Quote:In an extraordinary move that is not getting nearly enough attention, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a Justice Department letter that warned state courts about the unlawful practice of forcing low income defendants to pay fines or face jail. Courts across the country were (and many still are) enforcing these type of fees in order to generate revenue. When people fail to pay the fees typically imposed for minor traffic infractions or city code violations, courts have been issuing arrest warrants, sending people to jail or taking away their driving licenses. The problem with all that? In America, we don’t believe in debtor’s prisons. Oh, and the practice is unconstitutional. That means illegal. The U.S. outlawed debtor’s prisons in 1833. In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that jailing indigent debtors was illegal under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection ClauseSessions Made What Might be His Most Racially Discriminatory Decision Yet and Barely Anyone Noticed | Law & Crime