A federal judge has ordered D.C. to immediately allow drivers with more than $100 in outstanding fines or fees to obtain or renew their driver’s license, a ruling that supporters say could benefit tens of thousands of residents — many of them Black.

The late-December ruling from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stemmed from a July 2022 lawsuit filed on behalf of five D.C. residents who were unable to renew their licenses because they owed the city fines and fees. In the lawsuit, attorneys for the five residents said D.C.’s “Clean Hands” law — which broadly disqualifies people from getting a range of government documents and permits if they owe they city more than $100 — was unconstitutional as it applied to driver’s licenses.

In her ruling, Kollar-Kotelly agreed, writing that D.C.’s law had little connection to roadway safety and there existed “a risk of erroneous deprivation” because no mechanism existed to allow residents to contest a denial of the issuance or renewal of a driver’s license. She also ruled that impacted residents were suffering an “irreparable harm” that required immediate action.

Last summer the D.C. Council passed a bill to lift the Clean Hands requirement for driver’s licenses, though it was not set to take effect until October of this year. Still, Kollar-Kotelly said in her ruling that the fact that lawmakers acted on the issue “does not rebut Plaintiff’s irreparable harm nor obviate the need for injunctive relief now.”

“Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s thorough, well-reasoned decision is an important win for D.C. residents, fairness, and constitutional rights against punitive debt collection by the Government,” said Ariel Levinson-Waldman, president of Tzedek D.C., the group that sued on behalf of the five residents. “For over 20 years, the Clean Hands Law has forced D.C. residents of limited means to struggle with essential daily activities like getting to a job, health care appointments, childcare, the grocery store, and the laundromat. It not only punishes D.C. residents for their poverty but also intensifies the instability of their everyday lives.”

In early 2021 Tzedek released a report assessing D.C.’s practice of denying driver’s licenses to people who owe outstanding fines, concluding that it “penalizes poverty and and disproportionately impacts Black D.C. residents,” and noting that repealing it could impact more than 66,000 residents.

The report followed a 2018 law that did away with the D.C. practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of people who owed the government money, and also tied into a broader debate about how existing traffic fines in the city can disproportionately impact low-income residents who may not be able to afford the high-fine tickets issued by D.C.’s many speed cameras. The council passed a separate measure to do away with the city’s practice of doubling fines if they are not paid within 30 days, but it never took effect because lawmakers did not find money to cover the lost revenue the city would face.

But during last year’s debate on the bill to lift the requirement that residents not have unpaid debts to the city in order to renew their driver’s licenses, some lawmakers worried that dangerous drivers would be given a pass. They unsuccessfully proposed amending the bill to retain the “Clean Hands” provision for drivers with outstanding fines for certain moving violations.