Orange County v. Ware

There once was a time when this state’s constitution protected debtors from garnishment of wages. The command of article 16, section 28 was clear — “No current wages for personal service shall ever be subject to garnishment” — and its effect was plain and simple: a creditor could not clear its accounts by taking the bread off a worker’s table.

That day is gone. With today’s opinion, the court has effectively abolished one of the most distinctive and important protections of our state constitution. Prom now on, to collect on a bad debt, all a creditor need do is assign the debt to the debtor’s…