A Maryland lawmaker has sponsored the “Jared Kushner Act,” a bill that would prevent state judges from issuing arrest warrants for tenants who are being sued for less than $5,000 in unpaid rent.
Del. Bilal Ali, a Baltimore Democrat, said Wednesday he named the bill after President Donald Trump’s son-in-law because Kushner’s apartment management company was the state’s most aggressive landlord in obtaining civil arrest warrants against tenants.
“I think that people have a right to know who’s dragging them off to jail,” Ali said. “I mean, he has to take ownership for that.”
Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kushner Cos., said the company’s local counsel in Maryland handled matters consistent with other attorneys in similar situations in the state and in accordance with Maryland law. The arrest warrants are known as “body attachments,” and Taylor noted that they are not issued by a court unless there is a failure to abide by two court orders.
Ali said he filed the bill to protect his constituents. Four other Democrats in the Maryland House of Delegates are co-sponsors.
“My thoughts around this particular bill were that a lot of my constituents were being penalized because they were poor, and we’ve always had these regressive policies that have always impacted poor people,” Ali said.
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This is just anti-Trump grandstanding. No one goes to jail for not being able to pay rent. “Body Attachments” result from ignoring two court orders to appear for post-judgment enforcement, usually for what’s known as an “Oral Examination” which is a proceeding in which the judgment creditor is permitted to ask the debtor questions regarding assets and the ability to satisfy the judgment. If the summons to appear in court for the Oral Examination is ignored, then a “Show Cause” is issued and served on the debtor-defendant to appear in court and show cause why he is not in contempt of court for ignoring the prior court order to appear. If you are destitute you would just appear in court and tell that to the judgment creditor. So the arrest is for ignoring an order of the court, not for any inability to pay debts. By the way, most, if not all, judges will not allow a body attachment unless the Show Cause summons was personally served to the judgment debtor, thus eliminating any claims that the defendant-debtor was unaware of the court proceeding. I would say this legislator is confused about how our court system works if he is of the opinion that “poor people” don’t need to bother to obey court orders.
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