Oregon's Suspension of Driver's Licenses for Traffic Fines 'Punishes the Poor'

From 2007 to 2017, the Oregon DMV issued 334,338 license suspensions arising solely from minor traffic violation fines that went unpaid. "The DMV's practice amounts to the criminalization of poverty.'' A class-action lawsuit is now challenging this.

Suspending a driver's license because of unpaid traffic fines unfairly targets poor people and is unconstitutional, a class-action lawsuit alleges.

The Oregon Law Center is representing five plaintiffs from Portland, Baker City, Pendleton and Mission who have had their driver's licenses suspended for years or decades because they can't afford to pay their spiraling debt from traffic violations.

They want a federal judge to order the state to halt license suspensions for traffic fines until the Oregon DMV gives drivers a chance to demonstrate their inability to pay. If a driver can't pay the fines, they say the state should exempt that motorist from losing a license. The plaintiffs argue the state's current suspensions violate the due process rights of low-income people and are discriminatory.

"The DMV's practice amounts to the criminalization of poverty,'' Oregon Law Center attorney Emily Teplin Fox wrote in a motion for a preliminary injunction filed in federal court in Portland Friday. The center provides legal services to low-income clients across the state.

The suit is the latest in a national movement to curb the suspensions of driver's licenses based on unpaid traffic fines. (Oregon Live, September 8, 2018)
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A traffic fine is the penalty for a traffic infraction. That penalty is issued by a court, and collected through a process set up by the courts. When the DMV takes additional administrative action - suspending a license - it is in effect a double punishment (although a double punishment accepted by the law).

When a person cannot pay a fine, suspending a driver's license so that person cannot not legally drive, unduly and unfairly targets those individuals in our communities that have the least money. Nobody is happy about having to pay a couple hundred dollars in traffic fines, but if your income is only $990 per month (the maximum to qualify for SNAP/Food Stamps) it may simply not be possible for you to pay the traffic fine, and the increasing penalties for non-payment.

Now there will no doubt be some who say if you can't afford a traffic fine, don't break the traffic laws... OK fair enough, but as a police officer who works traffic once told me "everyone breaks traffic laws, if I follow you long enough you will commit a violation that I can stop you for." So, we come back to the question of how do we keep a simple traffic violation from destroying the lives of the poorest in our communities because they don't have the money to pay the fine?