For the second time, a federal judge in Georgia has labeled as unconstitutional a North Georgia city's misdemeanor bail policy that allowed defendants with sufficient funds to secure their release from jail while defendants too poor to post bail remained in custody.

U.S. Senior District Judge Harold Murphy issued the second order after a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in March vacated the judge's 2016 injunction barring the City of Calhoun from detaining—sometimes for weeks—misdemeanor arrestees who could not afford to post a cash bond. Murphy had certified the case as a class action and directed the city to release misdemeanor defendants awaiting court appearances on their own recognizance or an unsecured signature bond until it could formulate a bail policy that passed constitutional muster.

On June 16, Murphy issued an order to address the appellate panel's critique that the judge's first injunction failed to provide enough specific guidance as to what city officials must do to make Calhoun's misdemeanor bond policy constitutionally palatable. He again prohibited the city from detaining those arrested on misdemeanor or city ordinance violations who were unable, because of their poverty, to pay a secured or cash bail.