The War on Some Debts

[Alan]

On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Eric Cordian wrote:

> In a further blatant erosion of Constitutional rights, the California
> Supreme Court has ruled that a person owing child support who fails to
> seek or accept work may be jailed and fined for contempt of court, and
> that this does not violate any Constitutional bans on involuntary
> servitude or imprisonment for debt. 
>  
> This reverses nearly a century of contrary rulings.  Look for this
> "improved" interpretation to be expanded to other kinds of debts and
> judgments as well, as soon as massive public acceptance of it for the
> carefully picked child support issue is engineered. 

Expected targets:

-- Student loans  (There are already a number of nasty collection methods
made legal to "crack down" on those who are behind in their payments.)

-- State and local taxes 

-- Garnishments of wages

> The credit card companies are no doubt carefully analyzing this decision
> as we speak. 

As well as anyone else in the collections business.

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