LISA FOSTER: Certainly. And that history, both Justice Ginsburg and Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion—both wrote at length about the history of the excessive fines clause, which really goes back to the Magna Carta, but their emphasis on the fact that after the Civil War excessive fines were used by Southern states really to re-enslave black people. Southern states passed vagrancy laws, all kinds of provisions, and imposed very steep fines on people who violated those laws, and, when they couldn’t pay those fines, then literally sold people to private companies for labor. It was convict labor. And that was a notorious practice throughout the South and even in some Northern states, during Reconstruction and after.
That is important, because, today, fines, fees and forfeitures disproportionately affect black people and other communities of color in the United States. And by citing that history, the Supreme Court says to the states, “We understand what’s happening, and that’s a reason to be particularly concerned about the imposition of these excessive fines.”
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