MN County Extorts “Booking Fee” From Low-Income Residents

In Minnesota’s Ramsey County, which includes the state capital St. Paul, people who are arrested have to pay a $25.00 booking fee even if they are released without charges being filed. They can get it back, but not without submitting proof they were innocent, a process that an attorney for the county acknowledges involves “some legwork.” Now one man who failed to get it back, and ended up having to pay an additional $7.25 in fees to get back pocket money that had been confiscated when he was arrested, is trying to get his case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. He is represented by a prominent conservative attorney who has previously argued before the Supreme Court in cases challenging the Affordable Care Act and mandatory  union fees. In a New York Times article, legal reporter Adam Liptak probes the details of this case, which he notes is “part of a national trend to extract fees and fines from people who find themselves enmeshed in the criminal justice system.”