Issues & Trends
Lawsuit Takes Aim at District’s Clean Hands Law
July 29, 2022
Tzedek DC and Venable LLP filed a lawsuit on July 18 challenging the constitutionality of the District of Columbia’s “Clean Hands Law,” which prevents individuals who owe $100 or more in parking, traffic, or other fines and fees from obtaining or renewing their driver’s license, saying the two-decades-old law unjustly penalizes poverty.
The lawsuit came a week after the D.C. Council unanimously passed the Clean Hands Certification Equity Amendment Act of 2022 to reform the punitive practice. But even if the mayor and Congress approve the reforms, critics of the law say those changes will not take effect until October 1, 2023, at the earliest, and disadvantaged D.C. residents will continue to be penalized.
Ariel Levinson-Waldman, president and director-counsel of Tzedek DC, says the continuing impact of the law has forced the hands of advocates. “We really tried to resolve this without litigation,” he says. “We don’t go to court lightly, but here we have an obligation to vigorously represent our clients.”
The suit alleges that the District’s Clean Hands Law violates the Fifth Amendment rights of D.C. residents by depriving them of their property interest in their driver’s license without a hearing into their ability to pay the fines. The outcomes and disparate impacts of the policy on vulnerable communities are illustrated in the details of the case.
Evelyn Parham, the lead plaintiff, is a 51-year-old Black Ward 7 resident who relates how a confluence of bureaucratic and policy failures resulted in her penalization under the Clean Hands Law. In December 2016, Parham was involved in an accident caused by a pothole on Benning Road Bridge in northeast D.C. The Civil Division complaint in Parham v. District of Columbia explains how delayed reimbursement for damages and towing expenses arising from the accident resulted in a lapse in the vehicle’s inspection status and in expired registration, which then resulted in Parham’s citation by authorities, despite assurances she received that the parked vehicle would not be subject to fines.
Without a license, Parham has difficulty caring for her elderly mother and incurs additional expenses on transportation for personal errands.
The suit seeks a preliminary injunction that would provide immediate relief to Parham and the other plaintiffs, for whom Levinson-Waldman says a year’s delay would result in additional difficulties for his clients. “A driver’s license is really a ticket to full citizenship and full participation in modern life,” he says.
Levinson-Waldman describes the disparate racial impact and cascading series of consequences of the Clean Hands Law, whereby individuals who are unable to pay penalties find themselves in situations in which they must drive, resulting in arrest. “The racially disparate arrest rate should shock us all,” he says. “Black D.C. residents are being arrested at 19 times the rate of white D.C. residents for the offense of driving without a permit. The Clean Hands Law is playing a role in creating that situation.”
Seth Rosenthal, chair of Venable’s Pro Bono Committee, says that wealth shouldn’t determine whether someone is permitted to drive. “Enforcing the Clean Hands Law against D.C. residents of limited means based on their poverty is callous. It is also senseless,” he says. “You cannot coerce debt payment from those without the money to pay, and taking away their ability to drive makes it even harder for them to hold a job that would enable them to pay.”
While he applauds the D.C. Council’s action to end the Clean Hands regime, Rosenthal says his clients “should not have to wait for more than another year to obtain relief from the ongoing violation of their constitutional rights.”
Tzedek DC’s press release, which includes links to the civil complaint and request for preliminary injunction, can be found here.
