Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Tuesday announced that U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker last week upheld the Tennessee law prohibiting courts from considering a defendant’s ability to pay when setting their bond.
Among other complaints, the litigation alleged that the law was unconstitutionally vague. Tennessee still allows its judges and magistrates to consider a defendant’s employment history, overall financial circumstances, and other statutory factors, but specifically prohibits considering a defendant’s “ability to pay” when setting a bond amount.
“This ruling confirms that Tennessee’s bail law is constitutional and that the General Assembly acted within its authority,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement.
Skrmetti said, “Our excellent attorneys worked hard on this case, and our Office was proud to defend this commonsense bail reform law.”
The law was originally sponsored by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis), and signed into law in 2024, one year after Shelby County reached an agreement to align its bail practices with an “Ability to Pay” scale created by a progressive nonprofit that received millions from the federal government under the Biden administration.
While Parker acknowledged the law was “not a model of clarity,” he wrote in the ruling that “puzzling does not always equal unconstitutional,” and interpreted the law to mean that judges and magistrates “may consider an arrestee’s total finances” but not their “current liquidity” when setting bond.
The judge, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, previously denied a motion for a preliminary injunction in 2024, allowing the law to be enforced while the lawsuit was decided.
Just City, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit plaintiffs in the lawsuit, argued that the law violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by being illegally vague, allowing wealth-based discrimination, and eliminating procedural due process.
They were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, the ACLU Foundation of Tennessee, and three attorneys from the New York-based Simpson Thacher and Bartlett.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
