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

[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.