President Donald Trump is seemingly once again trying to change the landscape of America, this time signing a new executive order with the hopes of ending cashless bail in cities across the nation.
Washington, DC, seems to be heavily targeted in the order.
But ACLU of Michigan Senior Staff Attorney Phil Mayor, on what this could possibly mean in the long run.
“You know it’s hard to know what this executive order means, as has been the case with many of the things that come out of this administration. It seems to be worded vaguely and ambiguously, and nobody knows how it’s going to be implemented. If this order is implemented to try to weaponize or coerce judges or politicians or really anybody, to violate their oath of office and violate the Constitution, then that itself would be an act of extortion and an illegal act that won’t stand,” said Mayor.
Since a 2019 federal case was filed by the ACLU of Michigan, the 36th District Court in Detroit has ceased detaining individuals unable to pay bail, unless a judge determines that the person poses a flight risk or is a danger to the public.
Mayor says that’s totally constitutional. Prior to that, the policy was doing more harm than good.
“Clients I’ve had have been evicted from their homes when behind in bonds for misdemeanor cases. That type of thing doesn’t make us more safe. It ruins economies of families. It makes them have to move around. It makes children less stable. It makes educational situations less stable, and that’s what leads to crime,” Mayor said.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, more than 60% of those unable to pay bail fall within the poorest third of society, and 80% land within the bottom half.
As of now, if individual cities don’t take the initiative to change their policies to prohibit cashless bail, the executive order enables the Trump administration to potentially withhold federal dollars, services, and more.
Attorney Mayor says that in itself would be a “No No”.
“All I know is that anybody in Detroit is doing is following the Constitution. And if Donald Trump is trying to penalize or does try to penalize people for following the Constitution, that’s an extortion racket, and it’s illegal, and we’ll be watching that very carefully,” Mayor said.
This is something we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
We reached out to the Michigan Sheriff’s Association to see what they had to say on this matter.
The association isn’t commenting at this time.