Excessive Bail Clause

The Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits excessive bail set in pre-trial detention.

The Clause was drafted in response to the perceived excessiveness of bail in England. Excessive bail was also prohibited by the English Bill of Rights. If a judge posts excessive bail, the defendant's lawyer may make a motion in court to lower the bail or appeal directly to a higher court.

The excessive bail provision of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is based on old English common law and the British Bill of Rights.

In England, sheriffs originally determined whether to grant bail to criminal suspects. Because they tended to abuse their power, Parliament passed a statute where bailable and non-bailable offenses were defined. The king's judges often subverted the provisions of the law. It was held that an individual may be held without bail upon the Sovereign's command. Eventually, the Petition of Right of 1628 argued that the king did not have such authority. Later, technicalities in the law were exploited to keep the accused imprisoned without bail even where the offenses were bailable; such loopholes were for the most part closed by the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. Thereafter, judges were compelled to set bail, but they often required impractical amounts. Finally, the English Bill of Rights (1689) held that "excessive bail ought not to be required." Nevertheless, the bill did not determine the distinction between bailable and non-bailable offenses. [1]

The Eighth Amendment provides:

The Excessive Bail Clause currently governs only federal pre-trial detention.

In Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1 (1951), the Court found that a defendant's bail cannot be set higher than an amount that is reasonably likely to ensure the defendant's presence at the trial. In Stack, the Court found bail of $50,000 to be excessive, given the limited financial resources of the defendants and a lack of evidence that they were likely to flee before trial.

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