With no additional explanation, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a challenge to Dallas County’s cash bail system.
The suit was filed in 2018 by six misdemeanor and felony defendants, including Shannon Daves, who was arrested on misdemeanor theft charges. Daves, who is transgender, was kept in solitary confinement in the men’s unit of the Dallas County jail for days because she could not afford the $500 bond. The suit was filed by three organizations—the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Civil Rights Corps, and Texas Fair Defense Project. It claimed that the county’s bail system discriminated against indigent defendants by holding them in jail much longer than defendants with similar charges who could afford bail.
U.S. District Judge David Godbey agreed, and gave the county 30 days to eliminate what he called the “wealth-based detention” system. The case then made its way through the appellate court system, with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the federal government cannot interfere with state bail bond procedures. With the high court’s denial, that ruling will stand. That means it is up to the county to change its cash bail system; it can continue to operate just as it did when Daves was jailed six years ago.
You can read more about the case and its path through appeals here and go inside the jail hearing process here.
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