Policing for Profit is Unconstitutional

Doraville’s bragging about its reliance on fines and fees is evidence of why it’s budgeting system is unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that a judge cannot hear a case when he is paid by the city and the city stands to financially benefit from income generated by his outcome. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled that “mayor’s courts,” where the mayor of a town helps set the city’s budget and also rules on the guilt of innocence of defendants, are unconstitutional because of a conflict of interest.6 Similarly, the Supreme Court has said that prosecutors’ duty to exercise their discretion neutrally can also be compromised if their department has a financial stake in obtaining convictions.7 The same reasoning applies to law enforcement.

Doraville’s level of dependence on fines and fees is so high that the budget levels themselves are unconstitutional. Depending on the year, between one fifth to close to one third of every dollar a city official earns comes from fines or fees. City judges, prosecutors and police officers all understand the basic truth: if revenue from the fines and fees they issue decreases, their salaries may be at risk. That inherent bias in their work unconstitutionally compromises the tickets they write and cases they work on.

The Clients

Hilda Brucker was sitting at home one day working her job as a freelance writer. The phone rang, she answered, and was told by a hostile voice that if she didn’t come down to the courthouse at once she would be given a failure to appear violation. She hastily complied. When she got there, she found out that the city had issued a citation, although it had never told her about it. She later learned the citation stated she was charged with (1) “Rotted wood on house and chipping paint on fascia boards”; (2) “High weeds in backyard and ivy on tree and vines on house”; and (3) “Driveway in a state of disrepair.” Not knowing what to do, Hilda pled guilty to the driveway charge, while the other two were dismissed. She paid a fine of $100 and was sentenced to six months probation, where she had to report to a probation officer, avoid alcoholic intoxication, and cooperate “with code enforcement upon request.” She later hired an attorney who filed a motion to vacate her sentence, but the motion was continued several times, eventually being granted only after her six-month probation would have already ended. She also obtained a home equity line of credit in case she needed to pay for any of the fixes that the city nebulously demanded.

Jeff Thornton didn’t receive a phone call, but a “notice of arrest warrant.” Although he never received a ticket, the city had issued a warrant for his arrest.

Prior to that, he had received a prior “advisory notice” stating that his “trailer cannot be in grass—must be parked on hard surface” and that he should “call about the logs in backyard.” Jeff moved his trailer, but later received another warning about his perfectly ordinary woodpile, where a code enforcement official said he had to remove it from his yard. Jeff later went to trial and was fined $1,000. He then told the court that he couldn’t afford his fine, and it was reduced to $300, with 12 months probation. When he later demonstrated to a code enforcement official that he couldn’t afford that either the charges were dropped. In other words, once Doraville found out that it wouldn’t be getting money out of Jeff, the need to prosecute him went away.

Janice Craig and Byron Billingsley, whose stories are discussed above, both were ticketed for minor traffic violations that other jurisdiction rarely enforce—but all too tempting if a city uses traffic tickets for revenue. Janice now avoids driving in Doraville because she doesn’t trust the city’s officials to ticket, prosecute, and rule free from bias. Byron has no choice as he works in the city. But both are constitutionally entitled to a bias-free criminal justice system. Doraville’s budgeting practices deny that basic right to them and all others who live in Doraville or pass through on its streets.

Doraville is the Latest Front in the War Against Policing for Profit

The Institute for Justice has been at the forefront of fighting efforts by the government to use fines, fees, and civil forfeiture as a means to raise revenue and as a means to pursue illegitimate goals. IJ’s cases in this area include:

A successful challenge to the city of Pagedale, Missouri’s use of fines and fees to supplement its budget;

A class action lawsuit against two California cities that hired a private law firm to serve as their official city prosecutor. The firm then, without warning, imposed outrageously high attorneys fees on property owners that pled guilty to city code violations;

A successful request for an injunction against the city of Charlestown, Indiana, that is ticketing property owners in order to force them to sell to its favored developer;

Challenging, in a class-action lawsuit, Philadelphia’s forfeiture machine , where the city has used civil forfeiture to grab millions of dollars’ worth of property each year by putting residents through a faux-legal process without a judge, a jury, or representation by an attorney.

Litigation Team

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The litigation team in the case is IJ attorney Joshua House and IJ senior attorney Anthony Sanders. Working with them on the case is local counsel Frank Strickland of the Atlanta firm Strickland Brockington Lewis, LLP.

About the Institute for Justice

The Institute for Justice is the national law firm for liberty. IJ is a public-interest law firm that advances a rule of law under which individuals can control their destinies as free and responsible members of society. Through litigation, communication, outreach and strategic research, IJ secures protection for individual liberty and extends the benefits of freedom to those whose full enjoyment is denied by the government. IJ is based in Arlington, Va., and has offices in Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington, as well as a Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Law School.