Appeals Court: Judges Can Ignore Zero Bail Policy

California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals held last Tuesday that an emergency rule by the state’s Judicial Council authorizing  judges to give zero bail to those charged with nonviolent crimes is not mandatory.  Alaina Lancaster of the Recorder reports that the unanimous court asserted that “[t]he Judicial Council did not intend to suspend the array of statutes governing bail, as well as the superior court’s inherent authority, which allow the court to depart from the scheduled bail amount or impose bail conditions in individual cases under appropriate circumstances.”   The decision was announced in response to a San Diego Superior Court Judge’s decision to depart from the rule and set bail for defendants in order to “assure the appearance of the defendant or protect public safety.”

This emergency rule, one of eleven announced by the Judicial Council after a March 27 executive order by Governor Gavin Newsom, granted the Council unprecedented authority to enact rules to keep the courts in operation during the Covid-19 pandemic.