The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  A U.S. district judge has denied The Bail Project’s request for a preliminary injunction for a law that goes into effect on July 1. House Enrolled Act 1300 requires charitable bail organizations, like The Bail Project, to follow certain rules. “Basically what the Bail Project is trying to do here is to get the judge to throw out the law before it’s even gone into effect,” Paul Helmke, Professor of Practice at IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said. The judge’s denial of the request means the Bail Project must follow the law going into effect on July 1. The judge noted the reason for the denial is “because The Bail Project has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits justifying a preliminary injunction.” “Once the law’s in effect then it’s easier to argue the state’s written bad regulations or that the state has treated the Bail Project unfairly,” Helmke explained. “But ahead of time for a preliminary injunction, you have a very high standard.” In May...

  American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the Bail Project announced a lawsuit on Wednesday against the state over whether a newly enacted law is constitutional and targets The Bail Project. The lawsuit argues HEA1300 violates The Bail Project’s First Amendment rights. HEA1300 puts restrictions on charitable bail organizations by restricting who it can pay bail for. “The First Amendment allows us all to advocate for our positions and it’s commonly understood that one way of doing that is with money,” Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said. “The Supreme Court has told us that if you’re going to impinge on that right, limit that right, there must be very good reasons for doing so.” Under the new law, which goes into effect on July 1, charitable organizations can only pay bail for an indigent person who is not charged with a crime of violence or a person charged with a felony who does not have a prior conviction for a crime of violence. They are not able to bail o...

  U.S. senators from Kentucky and Indiana are calling for an investigation into charitable bail organizations. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Mike Braun, R-Indiana, said Wednesday that they want a list of all federally funded nonprofits that bail people out of jail before their court hearings. They also want to know how much taxpayer money they receive and whether there are any existing restrictions on using federal dollars to get people charged with crimes out of jail. The call for the investigation comes just two weeks after the Louisville Community Bail Fund posted bail for Quintez Brown, the man accused of shooting at Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. It also comes amid a push by Kentucky lawmakers to limit charitable bail organizations in the state, making a change to a bill that would make charitable bail illegal. Under the change to House Bill 313, charitable bail projects would no longer be required to report information on their donors, which was a requ...