A judge at the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville has issued a preliminary injunction against the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb.
The injunction orders him to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines.
The judge decided the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in establishing that the statute suspending licenses in this way is unconstitutional.
This ruling occurs just days after Governor Ralph Northam said he would support ending the license suspension for people too poor to pay court debts.
Nearly one million Virginians have had their licenses suspended under the statute, but this ruling only impacts the three named plaintiffs.