My only other comment on the order is that it’s so vague it will mean whatever the AG wants it to mean, which is to say only blue jurisdictions can expect to be defunded, whatever their bail practices are. Basically every jurisdiction in America uses some mix of cash and cashless bail.

I guess it’s as good a time as any to say I have new writing on the history of bail. Fun fact for today: what the President’s order attacks as “cashless bail” was the only kind of bail system America had for its first hundred years.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Basically what the Court did in Biden v. Nebraska, right? A national injunction against student loan forgiveness, but not a word from any justice about remedial authority when the merits were so “clear.”

Thousands of ordinary Philadelphians were caught up in the system every year, as also were leading founders like William Penn and Aaron Burr. If you or your students find ways to make use of the records we found, we’d love to hear from you.

Despite the portentous title (🙄), we publish what we hope will be a first foray into this rich and complex history, and not the final word. Bail practices reveal a lot about local justice and policing as well as high constitutional theory.

We were greatly aided by the work of social and cultural historians who had worked with the ledgers before (esp. Billy G. Smith, Jen Manion, and Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan), and we’re trying to pay it forward by posting online the records we cite in the article at bailatthefounding.net. (cont’d)

Launched in 2020, this became the perfect pandemic project as the Philadelphia archives safely reopened during the summer (cf. the abominable National Archives), AND had immaculately preserved jail dockets—the best I’ve seen from anytime anywhere in America. (cont’d)