ACLU sues Texas town for jailing teens over unpaid tickets

ACLU Sues Hidalgo for Jailing Teens Over Unpaid Tickets


How inhumane!

Francisco De Luna got his first ticket at school just after his father died, when he was 13. "Failure to comply," it read. The boy "did not want to learn." He would rack up many more for such crimes as baggy-pants-wearing, teacher-cursing and general disobedience.


In 2007, his mother, Elisa De Luna anxiously signed a document agreeing to pay off one ticket per month, plus court costs, for the next 11 months — a bill that then amounted to between $257 and $383, quite a bit more than she could afford on her sub-$20,000 annual pay. After more court actions and missed payments, the debt climbed to more than $11,000 for 24 school-related offenses spanning five years, according to a lawsuit announced today by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.


When Francisco De Luna, now 18, got snared in a public intoxication charge, the whole pile of warrants came down on him. County Justice of the Peace Rosa Trevino tossed him in jail, prescribing a day's hard time for each $100 he owed and could not pay. ACLU lawyers claim Francisco De Luna — now one of the plaintiffs in the group's federal class action — was essentially sentenced to debtor's prison, which violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The lawyers also claim it violates a Texas statute that requires courts to ensure a defendant, before being sentenced to jail for failure to pay, is not indigent and can't perform community service in lieu of fines.


"It's a classic equal-protection case," said Gouri Bhat, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, referring to the Fourth Amendment clause. "The claim at issue is that (the court) consistently failed to ensure it didn't jail poor people because of their inability to pay."

1) This kid is likely a ghetto thug who runs around in drug addled rebellion. He probably has lots of gang symbol tattoos, says "Ese?" a lot, and has thrown a brick through a store front window a time or two. Yes, I'm judging him. I don't care if his father died, as cold as that may sound. He is a rebellious troublemaker, and this well earned jail time will be good for him.

2) I am no Constitutional scholar, but I'm not seeing how this violates the Equal Protection Clause.

The Equal Protection Clause reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

First we must assume this Francisco De Luna is a legal citizen. (oh how raaaaaacist!) Next, let's analyse the content and context of the above language. The Equal Protection Clause was enacted as part of the 14th Amendment in 1868, not long after the end of the Civil War. It was passed, by all Republicans I might add, in response to the Black Codes enacted by the southern states. The Equal Protection Clause pertains mainly to race. That is why it was passed. It has nothing to do with a person's financial standing, as the ACLU would have you believe. In every major case involving the Equal Protection Clause, the issue at hand has been racial discrimination.

Now, how would jailing someone who refuses to pay their fines violate this clause? It doesn't.  It all plays into the leftist obsession with class warfare and social/economic justice. Some of them just cannot accept the cold hard truth that in this world there are people who have money and people who don't, and it will always be that way. People with money can pay their fines. People without money can't. In that way, there will never be true equality. It's that simple. Discrimination and violation of rights? No. The state of humanity and the perpetuity of inequality among man. It's how the world works and how it's always been.You see, I see the world in terms of simplistic black and white. And I say, if you can't pay your fines you go to jail. Debtors Prison? Ha! As if these fines were unpreventable and the debts impossibly high as they were in the Middle Ages. Don't act like these fines were so outrageously expensive that it would be impossible for one in poverty to pay. That, obviously is not right. But this thug accumulated so many offenses that he made it impossible to pay. It is his own doing. Jail time is only fitting. It's called justice.

The ACLU really sickens me sometimes. They are not an objective, apolitical organization by any means. Being a self touted defender of our Constitution they should be as objective as possible. Instead, their entire existence is based upon the furthering of the secular progressive agenda. Their record for defending pedophiles, criminals, and non citizens is quite enough to tell me just how pathetic this group is. Civil liberties for all! Unless you are any one of the following: a Christian, heterosexual, white, or a law abiding citizen.