Litigation
Nov. 3, 2016
SF city attorney will not defend lawsuit against bail system
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Tuesday he will not defend a federal lawsuit against the city's bail system, deeming it unconstitutional.
Daily Journal Staff Writer
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Tuesday he will not defend a federal lawsuit against the city's bail system, deeming it unconstitutional.
The declaration, which decries the system for punishing poor people who can't afford to be released before trial, is "huge," according to Jeff Adachi, the city's public defender.
"I applaud the city attorney for not only declining to represent the city in this matter but also his determination that the bail system is unconstitutional," Adachi said in a phone interview.
"The time for bail reform is now. It's been a long time coming," Adachi added.
It is unclear how Herrera's decision will affect the ongoing litigation, which is also being defended by the state attorney general's office.
The lawsuit in the Northern District accuses the city and county of San Francisco of violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by unfairly denying bail to plaintiffs who cannot afford it.
"There is currently a price tag on your freedom," said Phil Telfeyan, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit civil rights group Equal Justice Under Law, which filed the lawsuit last week along with a number of cases nationwide seeking review of money bail.
"If you can't afford bail, you sit in jail waiting for the resolution of your case. It's simply a matter of how much money do you have," Telfeyan said.
His group also has a parallel case pending in the Eastern District. Both have survived motions to dismiss by the state attorney general's office and both defendant counties.
The two cases are Buffin et al. v. City and County of San Francisco, 15-CV4959 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 28, 2015); and Welchen et al. v. County of Sacramento, 16-CV00185 (E.D. Cal., filed January 29, 2016).
The group has filed six other lawsuits across the country, Telfeyan noted.
He applauded San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, a defendant in the Northern District lawsuit, for her statement in a filing Tuesday in the Northern District lawsuit that said the state's current bail system was unfair.
The statement was made on behalf of Hennessy in a filing by Herrera's office.
"This two-tiered system of pretrial justice does not serve the interests of the government or the public, and unfairly discriminates against the poor ? [Hennessy] is not required to defend [the current system], and she will not," stated the filing by Herrera's office.
The city attorney's office could not be reached. But in a prepared statement, he said the current bail system "doesn't make anybody safer."
"It's not right, and it's not in keeping with our Constitution. It's time for it to stop. To echo U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, we need to ensure that in the United States there is no price tag on justice," Herrera said.
He added that the system has a "steep cost."
"People lose their jobs and their homes. Families fall apart. Taxpayers shoulder the cost of jailing people who don't need to be there. In other words, the current bail system is not just unconstitutional, it's bad public policy," Herrera said in the statement.
saul_sugarman@dailyjournal.com
Saul Sugarman
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