A California judge has ruled that incarcerated persons are eligible to receive the $1,200 stimulus checked provided by the federal government in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Phyllis Hamilton, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said excluding them from receiving payments is arbitrary and capricious, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hamilton ruled that nothing in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, disallows inmates from receiving the funds.
Hamilton’s decision came after a lawsuit was opened against U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig by an incarcerated man and a formerly incarcerated woman who said withholding the funds is unlawful. They filed the suit on behalf of 1.5 million prisoners across the country.
Read more here. (WHIO Local News)
Phyllis Hamilton, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said excluding them from receiving payments is arbitrary and capricious, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hamilton ruled that nothing in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, disallows inmates from receiving the funds.
Hamilton’s decision came after a lawsuit was opened against U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig by an incarcerated man and a formerly incarcerated woman who said withholding the funds is unlawful. They filed the suit on behalf of 1.5 million prisoners across the country.
Read more here. (WHIO Local News)