Taking Steps To End Cashless Bail
Pres Trump issued Executive Order 14342 of August 25, 2025,
Taking Steps To End Cashless Bail To Protect Americans.
Cashless bail means that if you are arrested and brought before a judge, the judge should order your pretrial release without requiring you to pay bail money. The idea was that requiring people to post bail money to be released before trial meant that jails were becoming overcrowded with poor people in pretrial detention.
The problem was that many people committed serious crimes, judges would release them, and they would go back to committing serious crimes without delay.
Exhibit 1: DUBLIN (CBS SF) -- A man who had been arrested for car theft in Oakland - and then released on court-ordered zero bail because of the coronavirus pandemic - was arrested just minutes later in Dublin for carjacking and a second attempted carjacking, according to the sheriff's office.
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office said a 32-year-old man identified as Rocky Music was arrested in a stolen car by Oakland police on Sunday morning and booked at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. He was released Sunday night at 7:23 p.m. on a zero bail order - which allows setting bail for $0 for non-violent felonies and misdemeanors.***
After walking to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station, Music carjacked a victim in the parking lot - just 37 minutes after being released from jail, according to the sheriff's office.*** https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/stolen-car-suspect-carjacks-victim-37-minutes-after-release-santa-rita-jail/
Exhibit 2: Michael Palacios, a then 31-year-old Manhattan messenger swung a hatchet - his "tomahawk" - at people in a McDonalds. He was arrested and released without bail due to New York's cashless bail law. https://nypost.com/2022/09/19/nyc-mcdonalds-ax-man-michael-palacios-speaks-out/ He was soon arrested again for graffiti and stealing a $3,500 bicycle. https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/fried-man-who-smashed-up-manhattan-mcdonalds-with-ax-busted-again/
§2a of the Order requires the Attorney General to give the pres a list of States and local jurisdictions that have cashless bail. §2b requires the
head of each executive department and agency [to] identify
Federal funds, including grants and contracts, currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions *** that may be suspended or terminated, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law***
This is smart way to defeat or delay lawfare. If the order required withholding funds immediately, crime lovers would seek an injunction based on appropriations law. Right now, no one has standing to challenge the order, and any appropriations challenge is not ripe. A federal court would not have jurisdiction over the order.
You still must ask if this is right. Republican states don't like it when Democrat administrations use federal power like this.
It all goes back to the Constitution and federalism. Crime is primarily a state and local concern, and the feds should state out of local matters. If the people in NY or Oakland don't like criminals swinging an axe at them, vote for different local government. If they don't like criminals carjacking them, vote for different local government.
