Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying at least $1.1 billion in defamation damages stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

      • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Think of the lowest point you can imagine and still have a functioning society. Realize there’s at least a solid third that want to go lower than that.

    • singron@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Debtors prisons are still illegal and don’t exist in the US. It’s all explained in the article, but the issue is really that poor people have bad legal representation, local judges aren’t all great, and private debt collection is out of control.

      In the US, your creditors should generally only be able to garnish your wages up to legal maximums. You can’t get prison sentences in civil trials.

      Arrests are a last-resort way for a court to force someone to appear. The other jail time is basically contempt of court for failing to comply with court orders. These should probably exist in general, but they are likely misapplied for the above reasons in these cases.

      Write to you representatives about the above stuff, not debtors prisons, since they won’t know what you are talking about.

      • tech@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That article is about state governments. Overthrowing the federal government probably won’t be the best course of action.