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Committee advances constitutional amendment to let judges deny pretrial release on public-safety grounds
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee voted to advance Senate Joint Resolution 1, a constitutional amendment to allow judges to consider public safety when deciding pretrial release; backers said it fills a gap in current law, while defenders and civil-rights groups warned it expands preventative detention and risks disparate impacts.
The House Judiciary Committee advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that would let judges deny pretrial release on public-safety grounds, a change supporters say would give courts clearer authority to hold dangerous defendants before trial.
Senator Sarah Cook, the amendment sponsor, told the committee SJR 1 would permit judges ‘‘to consider public safety in setting bail’’ and is paired with statutory trailer bills and ballot language. She said 31 other jurisdictions already permit similar preventive-detention authority and cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1987 decision in U.S. v. Salerno as the controlling precedent for…
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