"ACLU CLAIMS TENNESSEE’S BAIL LAW INCITES CONTROVERSY REGARDING WEALTH-BASED DETENTION"

From Vanguard News Group, via NACDL's news update:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced a lawsuit recently filed by legal advocates ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project, ACLU of Tennessee, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, this week on behalf of Just City to challenge Tennessee’s new bail law.

The statement describes Just City as an organization committed to addressing discrimination in Shelby County’s criminal justice system. The organization has consistently advocated for pretrial practices that emphasize reasonable release decisions, rather than basing these decisions on an individual’s financial capacity, said the ACLU.

Legal advocates argued that by enforcing unjust bail hearing procedures and discriminatory wealth-based detention the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment, and Tennessee is now the only state in the nation where judges are prohibited from considering whether individuals before them can afford to pay for their release.