Eleventh Circuit Weighs in on the Constitutional Parameters for Bail Systems

Interest in bail reform is heating up in North Carolina. The Chief Justice’s North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice recommended implementing evidence-based pretrial justice reform, and reform already is happening in several counties. The North Carolina Courts Commission took up the issue at its September 2018 meeting and Attorney General Josh Stein recently announced a stakeholder Roundtable on the topic. Among the reasons for the interest is this: Litigation risk. Advocates of bail reform have racked up wins in other jurisdictions. In March, I wrote (here) about a recent Fifth Circuit decision holding that the bail system in Harris County Texas violated due process and equal protection. (That opinion was superseded after rehearing but the court’s holding remains essentially the same). In August, the Eleventh Circuit decided Walker v. City of Calhoun, GA, ___ F.3d ___, 2018 WL 4000252 (11th Cir. Aug. 22, 2018). Here’s what happened there: In September 2015, Maurice Walker, a 54-year-old unemployed man whose sole income was $530 per month in Social Security disability payments, was arrested in Calhoun, Georgia for being a pedestrian under the influence of alcohol. That offense is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $500; no jail sentence is permitted. Walker was told that he had to pay a $160 cash bond to be released pretrial. Neither he nor his family had the money to post bond. Five days after his arrest, Walker sued alleging that by “jailing the poor because they cannot pay a [...]