SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco on Tuesday joined a growing nationwide call to abolish cash bail for poor defendants when it announced the city was dropping its opposition to a federal lawsuit.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said a cash bail requirement is unconstitutional because it “creates a two-tiered system: one for those with money and another for those without.”
The lawsuit was filed by two defendants who argued that requiring suspects to post cash bail to remain free pending trial unconstitutionally treats poor and wealthy defendants differently.
The centuries-old cash-bail system has become one of the flashpoints in the debate over equal justice with the U.S. Department of Justice siding with reformers.
The lawsuit challenging California’s bail system in San Francisco is one of 11 filed in eight states by the nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law since January 2015. The Washington D.C.-based legal aid group seeks to abolish cash bail requirements across the country, arguing that many poor defendants languish in jail for minor offenses while wealthy suspects accused of serious crimes can often post bail while awaiting trial.