The City of Calhoun, Georgia, adopted a scheme by which bail was set to a pre-determined amount, resulting in Maurice Walker being held in jail for nearly 2 weeks on misdemeanor public drunkenness charges. Walker challenged detention on behalf of himself and those similarly situated, including person held on traffic offenses.
The federal district court got it right and enjoined the city from enforcing its scheme: when setting bail for criminal defendants, basic due-process principles require a judge to take into account the defendant’s income and set an individually payable amount. That rule exists to ensure against a manifest injustice, converting pre-trial liberty from a right into a privilege of the wealthy. But Calhoun is pursuing an appeal. As Cato points out in our amicus brief supporting Walker, the due-process rule that the city violated is quite literally as old as the common law.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/dont-jail-people-not-paying-traffic-tickets-you-even-convict-them
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