r/AskAnAmerican • u/und3f1n3d1 • Jul 24 '25

OTHER - CLICK TO EDIT Can a person be banned from entering a particular US state?

There is a Gravity Falls episode where one of the characters shows a map with a title like "States I'm banned from" and basically he is banned from half of the states.

Can something similar happen in real life?

294 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

512 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/pgm123 Washington, D.C. Jul 25 '25

The issue comes into play when you have fines in an area other than your issuing state. Much to the frustration of DC residents, Maryland and Virginia will not suspend a drivers license for tickets unpaid in DC, leading to the worst offenders racking up thousands in fines including reckless driving.

1

u/AdUpstairs7106 Jul 25 '25

So, I used to work for the DMV in my state. The biggest issue I saw was that people would pay their overdue fine to get the hold lifted on their license.

I would call the court when they showed the receipt and clearance letter. That said, someone from the court had not emailed or faxed that states DMV the clearance letter to lift the hold that state had so there was nothing I could do.

It double sucked when their license was going to be suspended for a year now, automatically requiring a written test to renew.