DOJ Rescinds Guidance on Excessive Court Fines and Fees

• Author: Rebecca Beyer
• Pages: 9-10

Opening

Statements

SHUTTERSTOCK

EDITED BY LIANE JACKSON / LIANE.JACKSON@AMERICA NBAR.ORG

IN DECEMBER, U.S. ATTORNEY GE NERAL JEFF

SESSIONS REVOKED OBAMA-ER A GUIDANCE

WARNING LOCAL COURTS against engagi ng in

the common practice o f fi ning poor defenda nts in

misdemeanor and civil i nfraction cases in order to

boost revenue. These practices had b een decried

as unlawful moneymaking ventures t hat preyed

on poor and minority resid ents.

Months earlier, the U.S. Commission on Civil

Rights had recommended the D epartment of Justice

continue to promote the guidance to loc al courts

through what was know n as the “Dear Colleague”

letter. Catherine E. Lh amon, chair of the commission,

calls Sessions’ deci sion devastating.

“It’s just so wrongheaded,” she says, adding that, in

making its recommendat ion, her commission found

bipartisan recog nition of the harms of what she calls

“cash-register justic e,” or jailing people for failure to

pay fi nes a nd fees stemming from low-level o enses

such as parking ticket s.

The March 2016 letter was wr itten after a 2015

Department of Justice repor t on its investigation

into policing in Ferguson, Missou ri, where the city

was found to have “routinely issued ar rest warrants

… without any ability-to -pay determination”—in part

to increase revenue. Af ter the Ferguson report, the

DOJ and the White House held a meeting on the

connections between p overty and the criminal

justice system. The let ter, which o ered seven

“basic constitut ional principles” to help courts

Civil rights advocates see continued

rollback of reforms

DOJ Rescinds

Guidance on Excessive

Court Fines and Fees

APRIL 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 9