Right, I get that laws have been passed but that’s kind of meaningless. Any fool in legislature can get any fool law passed and on the books. I guess what I mean to ask is how is this legal given that the courts have ruled being a minor does not strip you of your rights or responsibility under the law and our justices system is bound by our 8th amendment preventing excessive fines (though never once tested in high court) Also, it’s worth noting that these fines are being levied against non-minors as well.
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This would be the point of going after parents of modest means; they don’t have the resources to fight such cases all the way up to SCOTUS.
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Perhaps not, but I think I’ve read about the organizations that offer free legal services in cases of violation of our constitution and such and it also seems to me that lots of lawyers would love to have their name attached to a precedent setting case. It just seems like this should be happening.
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I’m pretty sure that the ACLU tried a few cases back in the day, but apparently they must not have had much luck or perhaps the victory that they won was just that the courts needed to develop systems to account for ability to pay (which I am sure can be easily gamed in favor of the courts)
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” This Court has had little occasion to interpret, and has never actually applied, the Excessive Fines Clause" Supreme Court United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321, 327 (1998)
IFAIK this is the only case on the subject heard thus far.
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