Michigan resident Corey Harris has taken us on quite the journey these past few weeks.


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First, a video began going viral that showed Harris calling in to his “driving with a suspended license” trial from the front seat of his car. Naturally, the internet laughed — myself included.



Then, something strange happened.


Doing some further reporting, Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ discovered that Harris should have, in fact, still had an intact license.


According to the reporting, Harris had his license suspended as a result of a child support case. But “in January 2022, a judge ordered that suspension be lifted to allow Harris to drive again.”


“According to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, they never received a clearance from the friend of the court in 2022, so Harris’ suspension was never lifted,” writes Kimberly Craig.


Immediately, people from around the internet began sharing their apologies for laughing at this man, with some accusing the media of misbehaving and unjustifiably dogpiling on a dude who was actually in the right.




Initially, I felt a little guilty about this. After all, we were part of that chorus of people making fun of the video — what if he really was innocent?


From there, two things happened. First, I started watching Shogun, leaving me no available free time for self-reflection. Second, the Harris story took another turn: not only should he have not been driving, but he never actually had a license in the first place.


Michigan man who went viral for tuning into court while driving has been arrested *again* as his case takes another turn: He's never had a license to begin with.
byu/Urmomsjuicyvagina inPublicFreakout


As best I can tell, your driving record in Michigan is not 100 percent linked to your license. What this means is that you can technically have a court demand your license be suspended without ever having had a license in the first place.


In Harris’ case, he had a suspended license on his record, then got that suspension lifted — even though it seems he never actually had a driver’s license.


“The judge said he knew Harris has never had a driver’s license, because records show he ‘religiously, every year’ renewed his state ID at the secretary of state’s office, and in Michigan, a resident can’t hold both a license and an ID,” summarizes author Rebecca Cohen for NBC News.


If you don’t believe that reasoning, an officer claims Harris had previously admitted to not having a license, and in an interview, Harris said he couldn’t recall if he ever had a valid driver’s license.



In Harris’ case, if he really wanted to drive, he would have to go through a process of reporting to the court that his license suspension was eligible to be lifted. Then, he would have to actually get a driver’s license, as he wouldn’t have been able to receive one with the suspension on his record.


What a mess. At least NBC News reports that Harris is finally in the process of obtaining a proper driver’s license and that he has a test scheduled. Better late than never!