MEMPHIS, TN — 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.
The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to make it impermissible for the Shelby County Sheriff to enforce this law and asks the court to declare Tennessee’s new bail law as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, the ACLU reports.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Litigation Partner Craig Waldman asserted, “Tennessee’s law banning judges from considering an individual’s ability to pay bail is unfair and unconstitutional. The right to due process guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment is a bedrock of our justice system.”
As noted by the ACLU, since taking effect on May 1, the new law has undermined successful bail reforms Shelby County had implemented as part of an agreement with the ACLU, ACLU of Tennessee, Just City and other local advocates.
Trisha Trigilio, senior staff attorney for the ACLU, maintained, “Bail reform works, and it was working in Shelby County. More Tennesseans were returning home to live peacefully in their communities.”
“This shameful legislation targets low-income and marginalized Tennesseans for pointless jail time. We will not allow Tennessee lawmakers to end successful bail reform for political gain,” Trigilio continued.
According to the ACLU, the agreement mandated financial status be assessed before making bail decisions, personal bail hearings with legal counsel within three days of arrest, and secured money bail be imposed only as a last resort. Consequently, the number of people rearrested for new crimes was reduced and more individuals returned to their communities.
Stella Yarbrough, legal director at the ACLU of Tennessee, said, “We don’t have to choose between safety and justice; we can have both if we maintain a bail system that is evidence-based, fair, and constitutional.”
Yarbrough adds, “Everyone has a basic right to freedom, and this new law contradicts decades of constitutional precedent. Freedom for the wealthy and punishment for poor people of all races violates the Constitution and disproportionately impacts Black people and people with disabilities, while doing nothing to address the systemic causes of crime—like poverty and lack of opportunity.”
The ACLU writes the Tennessee legislature has established a dynamic where individuals who cannot afford to pay are detained indefinitely, regardless of their flight or safety risk, while those facing the same charges but able to afford bail are released until trial.
Josh Spickler, executive director at Just City, said, “Our Constitution demands that judges make individualized determinations about pretrial release.”
Spickler added, “This law prevents judges from doing that crucial work and results in the unnecessary detention of people who pose no risk to public safety because they can’t afford to pay an arbitrary bail amount. That’s not how our justice system is supposed to work.”
