Updates have resolved problems raised when the Tennessee Legislature passed a law requiring judges to hold second-time DUI offenders without bond.
“I just don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s constitutional,” Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck said.
During the 2010 legislative session, lawmakers passed restrictions aimed at detaining second and subsequent DUI offenders under the auspices of community safety.
The law, which took effect in January, stated that anyone with a previous DUI who was arrested again on the same charge was categorized as a “danger to the community,” regardless of when the other DUI took place or the circumstances of the new arrest.
But the new law smacked against defendants’ constitutional rights, which allow for a bond on noncapital offenses. DUI is a misdemeanor.