Thread by @atlanta_press

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund announced Friday that it will no longer operate as a bail fund in light of Georgia enacting SB 63. The solidarity fund said it will continue to offer legal and other support to arrestees.

atlsolidarity.org/our-response-t…

In addition, the solidarity fund said that “an independent fund has been established to which we have granted almost all of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund’s previously contributed donations (over $1M).”

The new fund will pay bail bondsmen to bail out protesters.

SB 63 is a sweeping cash bail bill that adds a host of new misdemeanors and felonies ineligible for signature bonds. Hours before it was voted on in the Georgia Senate, a conference committee added a section (Section 4) that criminalized the operation of charitable bail funds.

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection filed a constitutional challenge of Section 4.

A federal judge from the U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia issued a temporary restraining order on June 28 that stopped the State from enforcing Section 4 when the law went into effect on July 1.

On Friday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction that will stop the State from enforcing Section 4 until the case is litigated.

In her decision, Judge Victoria M. Calvert wrote, “The practice of posting cash bonds for others is intimately interwoven with the history of this nation and developed alongside several constitutionally protected rights…”

Calvert also wrote, “[P]osting bail for others as an act of faith and an expression of the need for reform has an important history in this country since its founding... This factor weighs strongly in favor of a finding of expressive conduct.”

UPDATE: A representative of the solidarity fund informed ACPC that they will continue operating the bail fund after the preliminary injunction against SB 63 Section 4 issued today.