U.S. appeals court strikes down Arizona bail law for immigrants
Source: Reuters
BY DANIEL WALLIS
Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:10pm EDT
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona law on Wednesday that denied bail to some immigrants who are in the United States illegally and charged with serious felonies, saying it violated constitutional due process protections.
In a review, an 11-member panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and agreed with a couple who filed a class action complaint in 2008 against defendants including Maricopa County and its controversial sheriff, Joe Arpaio.
They were challenging a ballot measure that passed with overwhelming support from Arizona voters two years earlier and amended the state's constitution to deny bail for certain felony offenses if the person charged is in the country illegally.
But the 9th Circuit said the move was unconstitutional since it did not address an acute problem, was not limited to a specific category of very serious offenses and did not consider the individual factors needed to determine if a suspect is an unmanageable flight risk.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-usa-arizona-bail-idUSKCN0I42GS20141015
