On Wednesday, the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down Arizona’s Proposition 100, a state constitutional amendment that barred state judges from considering bail for criminal defendants suspected of being undocumented immigrants. The decision by a 9-2 majority of the en banc panel supersedes an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the Court that upheld the controversial Arizona law.
The law had been in effect in Arizona since 2006 and was challenged by the ACLU in 2008.
Proposition 100 applied to most state felony charges in Arizona including crimes such as shoplifting and possessing a fake ID.
The ACLU argued that Proposition 100 violated the Due Process Clause because it was excessive. The ACLU questioned the motivation of the Arizona Legislature, claiming that the intent was to use pretrial detention to punish undocumented immigrants. Under the U.S. Constitution, pretrial detention cannot be used for purposes of punishment. The court majority held that Prop 100 is unconstitutional because it is a scattershot attempt at addressing flight risk and was not narrowly tailored.
The ruling affects all accused persons in Arizona who were subject to Proposition’s 100 blanket no-bail rule.