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Supreme Court· 3/2/1971

Tate v. Short

Citations

  • 401 U.S. 395
  • 91 S. Ct. 668
  • 28 L. Ed. 2d 130
  • 1971 U.S. LEXIS 74

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • holding that petitioner who was held on municipal prison farm because he was unable to pay fines on convictions for traffic offenses violated equal protection rights
  • holding that a state cannot convert a fine into a jail term solely because the defendant is indigent and cannot immediately pay the fine in full
  • finding that imprisoning those unable to pay traffic fines “is imposed to augment the State’s revenues but obviously does not serv that purpose”
  • finding that imprisoning drivers too poor to pay traffic fines, while ostensibly “imposed to augment the State’s revenues,” “obviously” impedes that purpose rather than serving it
  • invalidating a facially neutral statute that authorized imprisonment for failure to pay fines because it violated the equal protection rights of indigents
  • extending Williams to prohibit \jailing an indigent for failing to make immediate payment of any fine\

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Brennan, Burger, Douglas, Stewart, White, Marshall, Blacicmun, Blackmun, Black, Harlan

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

602 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

3 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

Other cases named Tate v. Short

2 other CourtListener records share this case name.

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.