DRIVERS SUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGE DEBT-BASED LICENSE SUSPENSIONS.

• Author: Ciaramella, C.J.
• Position: CIVIL LIBERTIES

LIKE MANY STATES, North Carolina punishes drivers with unpaid fines and fees by suspending their licenses. But as a result of a successful legal challenge to that policy, roughly 185,000 North Carolina residents may be eligible to have their driver's licenses restored.

The Charlotte Observer reported in March that a federal judge had approved a settlement in a long-running class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina. The ACLU argued that North Carolina's policy violated the due process rights of drivers who were too poor to pay. Under the settlement, residents whose licenses were suspended will have a chance to persuade a judge that they could not afford to pay their fines.

The settlement will reduce "the harms of the unnecessarily harsh and punitive practice of revoking people's drivers' licenses because they are not wealthy, a practice which has disproportionately affected people and communities of color," said Michael Delgado, staff attorney for the ACLU of North Carolina, in a press release. "People should know that there's a process to request a court hearing and possible relief if they believe their driver's licenses were wrongly revoked."

Civil liberties groups argue that debt-based license suspensions are unfair and illogical. The practice deprives people of...