Excessive fines? Florida city hits homeowners with massive penalties - Kristine Philips, USA Today:
June 19, 2019 - "'Fines are a reliable source of revenue for cash-starved cities, and they have become a big – and rapidly growing – business for local governments. States, cities and counties collected $15.3 billion in fines and forfeitures in 2016, according to the most recent financial records collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 44% jump from a decade earlier....
"The ways in which cities levy fines have been under scrutiny since at least 2015, when Ferguson, Missouri’s law enforcement became a national symbol of racial bias in policing after the shooting death of a young black man, Michael Brown, at the hands of a white police officer. The Justice Department cleared the officer of wrongdoing but published a scathing report describing the city’s municipal court system as a moneymaking enterprise that trapped poor and predominantly black residents in an endless spiral of debt and incarceration.
"Hard-to-pay fines spring up seemingly everywhere as cities look for ways to ... collect money without raising taxes. In Miami, traffic violations usually add up to hundreds of dollars. Collection agencies also add a 40% surcharge, meaning someone with several tickets can owe fines of $3,000 to $7,000.
"Doraville, Georgia, fined one homeowner $1,000 for stacking firewood in his backyard, according to a lawsuit that accuses the city of aggressive ticketing practices. A government newsletter said in 2015 that Doraville’s court system, which collects the fines, brings in 'over $3 million annually' and 'contributes heavily to the city’s bottom line.'....
"Last year, the chief justice of Ohio’s Supreme Court condemned governments’ reliance on fines to make money. 'Courts are centers of justice, not automatic teller machines whose purpose is to generate revenue for governments,' Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in a letter to her fellow judges urging them not to succumb to pressure to generate revenue through the court system.
"In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ... ruled unanimously that the Eighth Amendment, which forbids 'excessive fines,' restricts the fees state and local governments can impose. 'Protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield through Anglo-American history for good reason,' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court. 'Such fines undermine other liberties.'
"The Supreme Court's decision alone will not stop municipalities' aggressive practices, said Vanita Gupta, former head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division who oversaw the Ferguson investigation. Instead, she said, it will take more lawsuits to flesh out the limit for what constitutes an excessive fine."
June 19, 2019 - "'Fines are a reliable source of revenue for cash-starved cities, and they have become a big – and rapidly growing – business for local governments. States, cities and counties collected $15.3 billion in fines and forfeitures in 2016, according to the most recent financial records collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 44% jump from a decade earlier....
"The ways in which cities levy fines have been under scrutiny since at least 2015, when Ferguson, Missouri’s law enforcement became a national symbol of racial bias in policing after the shooting death of a young black man, Michael Brown, at the hands of a white police officer. The Justice Department cleared the officer of wrongdoing but published a scathing report describing the city’s municipal court system as a moneymaking enterprise that trapped poor and predominantly black residents in an endless spiral of debt and incarceration.
"Hard-to-pay fines spring up seemingly everywhere as cities look for ways to ... collect money without raising taxes. In Miami, traffic violations usually add up to hundreds of dollars. Collection agencies also add a 40% surcharge, meaning someone with several tickets can owe fines of $3,000 to $7,000.
"Doraville, Georgia, fined one homeowner $1,000 for stacking firewood in his backyard, according to a lawsuit that accuses the city of aggressive ticketing practices. A government newsletter said in 2015 that Doraville’s court system, which collects the fines, brings in 'over $3 million annually' and 'contributes heavily to the city’s bottom line.'....
"Last year, the chief justice of Ohio’s Supreme Court condemned governments’ reliance on fines to make money. 'Courts are centers of justice, not automatic teller machines whose purpose is to generate revenue for governments,' Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in a letter to her fellow judges urging them not to succumb to pressure to generate revenue through the court system.
"In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ... ruled unanimously that the Eighth Amendment, which forbids 'excessive fines,' restricts the fees state and local governments can impose. 'Protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield through Anglo-American history for good reason,' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court. 'Such fines undermine other liberties.'
"The Supreme Court's decision alone will not stop municipalities' aggressive practices, said Vanita Gupta, former head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division who oversaw the Ferguson investigation. Instead, she said, it will take more lawsuits to flesh out the limit for what constitutes an excessive fine."
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