Executive Orders to End Cashless Bail Are Misguided and Serve to Criminalize Poverty
On Monday, August 25, Trump signed two executive orders aimed at ending cashless bail in Washington, D.C. and nationwide. These orders are only the latest in a long string of White House policies and proclamations that aim to ramp up control, coercion, and surveillance of communities that are disproportionately poor and disproportionately Black and Brown. The orders come shortly after the White House declared an unsubstantiated “state of emergency” in D.C., placing the city under federal, militarized control and terrorizing, displacing, and arresting protestors and people living in encampments. Trump’s characterization of crime in D.C. is proven fiction, and to the extent that some pockets of the District are facing structural issues that may lead to homelessness or spur political dissent, those communities need resources and support, not military tanks and handcuffs.
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Presidential Takeover of D.C. is Unlawful and Unjust
On August 11, 2025, President Donald Trump asserted statutory authority to take over the District of Columbia’s police force, send in National Guard troops, and broadly govern D.C. Since then, six states have sent in their National Guard. Though done to make D.C. “safe and beautiful,” it violates D.C. residents’ views on beauty and safety and, even to the extent D.C. self-government is disregarded for the sake of non-residents’ opinions, it is unconstitutional and ineffective.
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Lawsuit Filed to End Foster Care Fees in Georgia
Today, Equal Justice Under Law filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia challenging the state’s unconstitutional foster care fees scheme that charges exorbitant and arbitrary fees to parents living in poverty whose children are in foster care. The lawsuit alleges that Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) removed children from more than 700 families between 2018 and 2022 solely for reasons of poverty, and then turned around and charged parents of those same families unaffordable monthly child support amounts which served to further delay or altogether prevent family reunification.
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New Executive Order Will Not End Homelessness in D.C.
The Order took direct aim at unhoused populations on federal land in the District, empowering the Secretary of the Interior to “issue a directive to the National Park Service requiring prompt removal and cleanup of all homeless or vagrant encampments . . . to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
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Appeal Filed in Case Against Missouri Family Support Division
Last month, Equal Justice Under Law filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in an effort to keep our lawsuit challenging wealth-based driver’s license suspensions alive.
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“You’re On Your Own Kid”: State Police Sweep New Orleans Homeless Encampments
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell spoke publicly in June about making the city the safest it’s ever been in preparation for the Eras Tour and Super Bowl LIX. We have now seen that this “safety” is at the expense of the city’s most vulnerable populations.
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Harris County, Texas and Abolishing Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons
Last month, Judge Steven Duble in Harris County, Texas recalled all 12,500 arrest warrants issued by his court for people charged with non-jailable class C misdemeanors. He had “serious constitutional concerns as to whether we’ve done our ability-to-pay analysis," and recalled them instead of continuing to rubberstamp warrants that unconstitutionally criminalize poverty.
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Johnson v. Grants Pass: Incarceration Will Not Solve Our Homelessness Crisis
Today, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Johnson v. Grants Pass, a case presenting the question of whether a law criminalizing sleeping outdoors is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment when no alternative shelter exists. The Court ruled that the city of Grants Pass has the right to jail unhoused residents solely for the “crime” of sleeping outdoors.
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Plaintiffs Await Summary Judgment Decision in Lawsuit Challenging Abusive Pre-Trial Fees
In September of 2021, Equal Justice Under Law filed a lawsuit against Ravalli County, Montana, challenging the County’s “Jail Diversion Program.” The picture Equal Justice Under Law uncovered through litigation was even bleaker than the one painted in the amended complaint.
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Housing Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Johnson v. Grants Pass, a case that asks whether it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize sleeping outside in jurisdictions where no alternative shelter is available.
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Celebrating 10 Years Fighting for Equal Justice
Thanks to our supporters, Equal Justice Under Law celebrated its 10-year anniversary on March 24, 2024! This work would not be possible without the dedication of donors who agree that wealth-based discrimination undermines the foundation of our justice system.
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Illinois Becomes First State to Abolish Cash Bail
Recently, the Illinois State Supreme Court upheld the 2021 Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act (officially known as Public Act 101-652), which abolishes cash bail and specifies procedures judges must use to impose pretrial detention.
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Victory Brings Halt to Sacramento's Discriminatory Bail System
Equal Justice Under Law secured a monumental victory in its lawsuit, Welchen v. Sacramento, a case challenging Sacramento’s pretrial cash bail system. Filed in 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Welchen v. Sacramento alleged that Sacramento’s policy of charging exorbitant pretrial bail amounts without accounting for arrestees’ ability to pay was unconstitutional.
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New Guidance on Voting Rights in Tennessee Further Exacerbates Disenfranchisement
Last month, Tennessee’s Elections Division issued new guidance requiring formerly incarcerated residents who have been convicted of a felony to fully restore their citizenship rights before being allowed to register to vote.
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Class Certification Victory for Hundreds of Texans Charged Pre-Trial Fees
A federal class action challenging pre-trial fees in Anderson County, Texas secured a critical victory this week when the court granted class certification to the plaintiffs. In Anderson County, many pre-trial arrestees — who have not been found guilty of any crime — are required to…
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