4 ms·

I don't read the top result as a debunking. If they can arrest you for failing to show up in court related to a unpaid student debt, that seems equivalent to be

by mentat 11y ago

I don't read the top result as a debunking. If they can arrest you for failing to show up in court related to a unpaid student debt, that seems equivalent to being able to arrest you for an unpaid student debt.

dragonwriter 11y ago
No, you can be arrested for failure to appear in court when summoned regardless of the basis, even if the basis of the summons is not itself an arrestable offense. Further, the summons wasn't about student loan debt, per se, it was about an unpaid default judgement. What led to the arrest wasn't the student loan debt, it was a series of failures to follow court orders or even respond to lawsuits. Constitutionally, you cannot be arrested for inability to pay a debt (including a student loan debt) in the US. There are a whole lot of real problem cases of systems set up in such a way that one could argue that people are, in fact, arrested for what amounts to inability to pay a debt, and that's a real problem (John Oliver did a good piece on this a while back) -- but this isn't one of them. This is someone arrested for just ignoring court orders and hoping they would magically go away. The fact that the orders ultimately stem from a student loan debt is rather beside the point.
- MrTonyD 11y ago
  That the court order stems from a student loan debt is not beside the point. It is the exact point.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > That the court order stems from a student loan debt is not beside the point. It is entirely beside the point: he wasn't arrested for an unpaid student debt, or even for an unpaid default judgement from a case he failed to respond to over a student debt, he was arrested for failure to appear when summoned to court. That's not being arrested for debt, student loan or otherwise.
    - MrTonyD 11y ago
      You're arguing legality - I'm arguing morality.
  - ocfx 11y ago
    You are not a smart man

by mentat 11y ago

dragonwriter 11y ago

No, you can be arrested for failure to appear in court when summoned regardless of the basis, even if the basis of the summons is not itself an arrestable offense. Further, the summons wasn't about student loan debt, per se, it was about an unpaid default judgement. What led to the arrest wasn't the student loan debt, it was a series of failures to follow court orders or even respond to lawsuits. Constitutionally, you cannot be arrested for inability to pay a debt (including a student loan debt) in the US. There are a whole lot of real problem cases of systems set up in such a way that one could argue that people are, in fact, arrested for what amounts to inability to pay a debt, and that's a real problem (John Oliver did a good piece on this a while back) -- but this isn't one of them. This is someone arrested for just ignoring court orders and hoping they would magically go away. The fact that the orders ultimately stem from a student loan debt is rather beside the point.

MrTonyD 11y ago
That the court order stems from a student loan debt is not beside the point. It is the exact point.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > That the court order stems from a student loan debt is not beside the point. It is entirely beside the point: he wasn't arrested for an unpaid student debt, or even for an unpaid default judgement from a case he failed to respond to over a student debt, he was arrested for failure to appear when summoned to court. That's not being arrested for debt, student loan or otherwise.
  - MrTonyD 11y ago
    You're arguing legality - I'm arguing morality.
- ocfx 11y ago
  You are not a smart man