Federal appeals court agrees that Dallas County’s bail system denied poor defendants equal rights

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling that Dallas County’s bail system is unconstitutional because of how it treats criminal defendants who do not have the money to secure their release from jail.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion filed on Monday, agreed with most of U.S. District Judge David Godbey’s earlier ruling in a 2018 lawsuit brought by Civil Rights Corps, the ACLU and other civil rights groups against the county. The plaintiffs claimed the county’s bail system was unfair to poor defendants who languish in jail while others bail out quickly.

The appeals court ruling means the case will proceed to trial in federal court in Dallas unless a settlement is reached.

Godbey had banned Dallas County from using a fixed schedule to set bail without considering other amounts or alternatives that would allow the suspects’ release from jail. He wrote that the policy of setting bail without regard for a defendant’s ability to pay violated the person’s constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

Godbey ordered the county to provide arrestees with a hearing within 48 hours if a magistrate judge didn’t release them after they had indicated they could not afford bail.

“This suit was properly allowed to proceed against most of the judges and the County,” the justices wrote in their ruling.

The case began in 2018 when six residents sued the county over how bail is set for those who are arrested. As many as 70% of inmates in the Dallas County jails were there because they could not afford bail, according to some estimates. The Dallas County lawsuit followed a similar case in Harris County that was settled last year.

The Texas Legislature has failed to address the issue statewide.

Dallas County was in the process of putting into place changes to comply with the judge’s order when a group of state district judges, represented by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed an appeal in the case. Paxton had argued that the judges, who preside over felony cases, typically don’t handle bail hearings and thus shouldn’t be included in the lower court ruling.

The Fifth Circuit agreed this week with the felony court judges.

But Elizabeth Rossi, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney, said those judges are still a part of the lawsuit because of different claims against them that were not addressed in the appeal. Rossi, a senior attorney with Civil Rights Corps in Washington, D.C., said in an email that the case “will proceed to trial unless there are further appeals.”

“We are reviewing the opinion and considering next steps,” she said Wednesday.

Despite the appeal, some of the county’s felony court judges have already begun putting similar practices into place on a more limited basis.

And the misdemeanor court judges, as well as other county officials, have already “fully implemented all of the procedural protections required by the Fifth Circuit,” said Katharine David, lead attorney for Dallas County.

“And they continue to evaluate and implement other strategies for reducing the jail population while protecting the safety of the community,” David said Wednesday in an email. “We’re in the process of analyzing the Court’s reasoning and determining the County’s next step.”