The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an important ruling striking down the money bail system in New Orleans (and, by extension, all of Louisiana). In short, the court ruled unanimously that the Louisiana bail system – where judges take a percentage cut of every monetary bond they set to fund their courts – is unconstitutional. We are working through all of the implications and enforcement options, but the ruling basically means that under current Louisiana law, judges are not permitted to set monetary bonds. There are many activists, advocates, organizers and lawyers doing difficult work in Louisiana, and we can't wait to work with them to replace this horrible bail system that has caused so much pain and extracted so much wealth for far too long.
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