The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of wealth-based, punitive driver's license

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The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of wealth-based, punitive driver’s license suspension scheme

The following post was written by Rebecca Ramaswamy. Rebecca is a civil rights attorney at Equal Justice Under Law, and one of the attorneys on the Fowler v. Benson case in Michigan.

The Litigation Long Game

As a Michigan native, I was excited when my D.C.-based civil rights organization, Equal Justice Under Law, decided to bring a lawsuit against my home state. This was in early 2017, only a few months after I was hired, and while I liked the idea of getting some work-expensed trips home, there was something uniquely satisfying about calling out injustice in the place where I was raised. It was gratifying to know that my work could very well benefit people I grew up with, and that my extended family would read about my work in the Detroit Free Press… and might actually be interested.

And our lawsuit, Fowler v. Benson, was an easy sell even with my more conservative relatives. Did you know that the state of Michigan will automatically suspend your driver’s license if you fail to pay any court-ordered debt, even if you cannot afford to pay? If you get ticketed for driving five miles over the speed limit and you’re fined $100, and you don’t have $100, your license will be suspended.

For most people, the irrationality of the law is immediately obvious. Once your license is suspended, you’re likely to lose your job, and you’ll have a hard time finding a new one that doesn’t require you to have a license. In the end, the state of Michigan — like many other misguided states — is trying to incentivize debt repayment by actually making it more difficult for people to pay their debts.

My aunts and uncles immediately grasped why the law is “stupid” — the counterproductive and discriminatory effects of the law are easy to explain and understand in laymen’s terms. But in legal terms, it is surprisingly tricky.

Read more: https://www.eclectablog.com/2019/05/the-sixth-circuit-court-of-appeals-rules-in-favor-of-wealth-based-punitive-drivers-license-suspension-scheme.html