Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: May 3 The Washington Post on court costs that trap the poor. Nearly a decade ago, a federal investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri, police department drew widespread attention to how many municipalities rely on funding from hefty court fees and fines, often resulting from minor automobile-related violations. This encourages aggressive enforcement and leads to modern-day debtor prisons, in which poor people are incarcerated not for any underlying criminal conduct — only for lacking money to afford escalating penalties. The Obama Justice Department issued guidance aimed at limiting this pervasive and predatory practice. But the Trump administration, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rescinded it in 2017. Last month, the Biden Justice Department released a more robust version of the Obama-era memo that lays the groundwork for legal challenges to excessive court fees. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta...
from ABC News: US https://ift.tt/N4mClSD
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