Judge Kristin Ruth, Acting in Excess of All Jurisdiction, Enacted a Law in 2003 without obtaining legislative approval from the NC General Assembly.
Ruth ordered electronic monitoring of non-custodial fathers in NC. This is a violation of the 4th amendment against unlawful search and seizures. NC Fathers has right to file a class action against Judge Ruth.
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The excerpt below is from former Chief Justice Lake, praising Judge Kristin Ruth’s “initiative.”
The example I want to cite to you is the remarkable initiative undertaken by
Judge Kristen Ruth, a district court judge in Wake County, who on her own
decided to incorporate into her orders the collateral court resources that were
already available to her and to implement a new, innovative approach to the
collection of child support. Through her collaborative efforts in bringing into her
courtroom representatives of electronic monitoring services, Carolina Dispute
Settlement Services and Wake County Human Services (including the alcohol
treatment center and Job-Link), Judge Ruth has substantially increased child
support collections by using alternatives to incarceration.
This new approach to the collection of child support greatly benefits children
financially, provides opportunities to the unemployed parent (primarily a noncustodial
father), creates a more favorable family atmosphere, saves the taxpayers
money, and reduces overcrowding in the jails. In the last fiscal year, Wake County
collected over $24.1 million in child support, far exceeding all prior collections. Furthermore, the use of eighty electronic monitoring units for the
non-violent, non-custodial fathers in child support cases reflected a cost avoidance
of $491,844 for the county and taxpayers in the fourth quarter of 2002 alone, since
the cost for electronic monitoring is $8 per day compared to a cost of $68 for
housing one inmate in jail per day.
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http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/sc/StateoftheJudiciary2003.pdf
