Walker v. Calhoun: Department of Justice files amicus brief stating monetary bail schedules are constitutional

Calhoun, GA – On September 13, 2017, the United States Department of Justice filed a brief in favor of the constitutionality of the imposition of monetary bail and using a bail schedule based on the offense, if a defendant then has a right to an expedited bail review hearing where the defendant could assert, among other things, his or her lack of financial resources or ability to post bail.

The City of Calhoun, Georgia’s revised municipal order on bail is extremely similar to the bail schedule and order that resulted from the settlement in the Clanton, Alabama case, where Eric Holder filed the first of Justice Department papers on the issue of bail.

These same Plaintiffs lawyers admitted then that a bail schedule with a 48 hour review by a judge was constitutional, and despite that and the clear statement of the US DOJ and various state attorneys general, they still continue to persist in their untested theory that the right to assert to be free from “wealth-based detention” renders any use of a bail schedule unconstitutional.

Read the full brief…