South Carolina DMV targets poor people with license suspensions, lawsuit alleges

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A team of law firms and civil rights advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles challenging the state’s practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of those unable to pay outstanding traffic tickets.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Seattle-based Terrell Marshall Law Group, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center claim the practice disproportionately punishes the poor and violates citizens’ constitutional rights to due process.

“The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles is running a wealth-based driver’s license suspension system that punishes people who cannot afford traffic tickets far more harshly than those who can, in violation of basic constitutional rights to fairness and equal treatment of rich and poor in the legal system,” said Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, the ACLU’s deputy director of its Racial Justice Program, in a statement.

“Taking driver’s license’s away from people who are struggling financially drives them deeper into poverty, unemployment, debt and entanglement with the legal system,” Choudhury added.

Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article236822988.html