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OK. Don't put yourself in a situation where it appears that you broke the law.

I don't abide by what you're trying to say. I've told the story here before, but on the way to the wedding reception, the mother and father of the bride were hit and killed by a drunk driver, who happened to be an undocumented worker. The judge, for reasons no one can be certain said that, because he was not rich, bail would be set at $20,000, which he paid. No one has seen him since. To me, two murders that will never see justice because some stupid judge tried to take economic considerations into the bail judgement. People are jailed because of a flight risk, innocent or not. It's got little to do with guilt or innocence at that point in time.

OK. Don't put yourself in a situation where it appears that you broke the law.

You have more trust in the government than I do. I tend to think it is a good thing that the Constitution protects the rights of the accused.

I don't abide by what you're trying to say. I've told the story here before, but on the way to the wedding reception, the mother and father of the bride were hit and killed by a drunk driver, who happened to be an undocumented worker. The judge, for reasons no one can be certain said that, because he was not rich, bail would be set at $20,000, which he paid. No one has seen him since. To me, two murders that will never see justice because some stupid judge tried to take economic considerations into the bail judgement. People are jailed because of a flight risk, innocent or not. It's got little to do with guilt or innocence at that point in time.

I am sorry to hear about what happened to that couple, but that is no reason to treat everyone accused of a crime as guilty. The judge is required to take the defendant's ability to pay into account when setting bail under the law of most states and federal law (if you are in federal court), though it sounds like he got in wrong in that case. Also, the Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, and the purpose of bail is to secure the attendance of the accused, not to punish the accused or to set bail so high no one could post it.

That said, there is no general constitutional right to bail. In theory, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a law denying bail for any illegal immigrant, though determining who is an illegal immigrant could be a problem.