The plaintiffs in this action are Texas residents whose driver’s licenses had been suspended. They brought suit against the Chairman of the Texas Department of Public Safety Commission in his official capacity on December 5, 2018. The Commission suspended the plaintiffs’ licenses through a Driver Responsibility Program. The program had forced 1.4 million Texans to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars each year for up to three years after an offense.

The plaintiffs filed the class action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Represented by Equal Justice Under Law and the Austin Community Law Center, the plaintiffs alleged that the Driver Responsibility Program discriminated against indigent Texans. They claimed that the program violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights of due process and equal protection, and violated longstanding principles that a person should not be penalized for inability to pay. To address these violations, the plaintiffs asked for declaratory relief, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees. They asked the court to prevent the Texas Public Safety Commission from issuing or processing license suspensions for unpaid surcharges, and to order the commission to reinstate licenses that had been suspended for failure to pay fees associated with the Driver Responsibility Program.

On March 6, 2019, the state filed a motion to dismiss the case. While the motion was pending, Governor Greg Abbott signed Texas House Bill 2048 into law, which repealed the Driver Responsibility Program. The court (Judge Xavier Rodriguez) declared the case moot on September 3, 2019.

Keagan Potts - 02/22/2019
Bogyung Lim - 07/03/2020


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