COURT RULING ON BAIL BOTH WISE AND HUMANE

In a triumph for fairness and common sense on Wednesday, the California Supreme Court sharply and unanimously limited the state’s cash bail system, ruling it is unconstitutionally unfair to poor people. In a costly state in which one-third of residents are at or near the poverty line, it is no surprise that studies show that more than half the people in county jails are detained because they can’t afford to pay up front 10 percent of their bail to a bail bonds agency. Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, writing for the court, said decisions about pretrial detentions should be based “on a careful, individualized determination of the need to protect public safety” — not the wealth of the defendant.

The importance of this ruling can’t be overstated.

Defendants who languish in jail for long stretches lose their jobs or have schooling interrupted and face huge disruptions in their personal and family relationships. There is nothing just about a justice system that inflicts such personal despair and destruction on people not because they are a proven menace to society but because they lack money.

Voters who backed a November ballot measure that threw out a 2018 bail reform law may complain about being overruled by judges. But Cuéllar’s opinion lays out a powerful case that bail laws “violate state and federal principles of equal protection and due process.” Judges will still retain the power to set bail. What’s key is that, going forward, they won’t have their hands tied by needlessly cruel rules.