Overview

• One order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit within 30 days a list of state and local jurisdictions that have substantially eliminated cash bail for crimes deemed threats to public safety.
• Federal departments, coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget, must identify grants, contracts, services or approvals that could be suspended or terminated for those jurisdictions, consistent with law.
• A separate D.C.-specific order tells federal law enforcement to keep arrestees in federal custody to the fullest extent allowed and to seek federal charges and pretrial detention whenever possible.
• The measures follow the administration’s federalization of elements of D.C. policing and deployments of federal agents and National Guard troops in the capital.
• Local officials and civil-liberties groups signaled legal pushback and questioned the policy basis, citing research from the Brennan Center, Loyola Chicago and John Jay showing no clear causal link between bail reform and higher crime.