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The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in CIncinnati this week struck down a state law that has ended up wrongfully denying some deserving citizens food stamps. The court upheld a lower court ruling that declared the state policy unconstitutional, the Detroit Free Press reports.
In three years, the fugitive-felon policy has automatically cut off food stamps to 20,000 people whose names popped up in a computer database that identified them as felons who have outstanding warrants, reports Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press.
The problem has been that some of the people on the list didn't actually have outstanding warrants. Some were victims of identity theft.
In one instance, the Freep reports that Walter Barry, a 46-year-old mentally disabled Detroit man who lives with his mother, lost his public assistance when his name turned up in a fugitive database. The problem was, his brother had stolen his name and used it as an alias when he was arrested about 25 years ago.
