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Surety bond insurance companies are applauding a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday not to review the constitutionality of cash bail in a closely watched case from the North Georgia city of Calhoun, while civil rights lawyers say the closely watched litigation has still helped move the country away from an unfair system.

The high court denied certiorari in Walker v. Calhoun, effectively letting stand a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta affirming the constitutionality of Calhoun’s monetary bail schedule. The circuit's split decision vacated a preliminary injunction granted by Senior Judge Harold Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, who has twice ruled that Calhoun’s misdemeanor bail policy is unconstitutional for allowing those with cash to bail out of jail while holding those who can't afford release.

The Supreme Court's certiorari denial drew immediate cheers from the American Bail Coalition, a group that says it is “comprised of the nation’s largest surety insurance companies” and “dedicated to protecting the Constitutional right to bail and the promotion, protection and advancement of the surety bail profession in the United States.”

“The Supreme Court today sent a very strong message that monetary bail and bail schedules are constitutional if the proper due process procedures are followed," American Bail Coalition Executive Director Jeff Clayton said in the news release. "It has a been a long, hard and expensive road to get here.”

The group said that, in denying cert, the Supreme Court has affirmed that “rational basis review is the appropriate standard for reviewing claims of wealth-based discrimination under the equal protection clause,” contrary to two federal district judge rulings.

"Then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder first filed a statement of interest in Varden v. City of Clanton in 2015, arguing against the use of bail schedules,” Clayton said. “Since that time, we have been waiting for a signal from the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether the use of money bail schedules is constitutional. Today, we can say without hesitation, we know their answer."

The Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta argued against cash bail on Maurice Walker’s behalf.

“The bail industry hasn’t any cause to celebrate. It’s an outmoded and destructive industry that’s on its way to extinction, and cases like Walker are just the first step,” Southern Center Managing Attorney Sarah Geraghty said Tuesday. “While we hoped for a different result in the Supreme Court, the Walker case has nevertheless pushed the cash bail debate forward and encouraged many jurisdictions—including Atlanta—to reconsider their reliance on wealth-based detention.”

During the course of the litigation, the city of Calhoun changed its system from one that allowed people without funds to be held up to 11 days before seeing a judge to a limit of 48 hours. Walker had been jailed for six days because he couldn’t pay a preset bail of $160 after being charged as a pedestrian under the influence of alcohol.

“Under the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Walker (2018), cities that jail people for longer than 48 hours before conducting an inquiry into the ability to pay cash bail are now vulnerable to legal challenge and should change their policies,” Geraghty said. “A better, more morally defensible response would be to follow the lead of cities like Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, and Nashville in reducing or eliminating wealth-based detention all together.”

When the case returns to the trial court, the Walker legal team will seek to enforce at least the 48-hour limit on how long people can be jailed before seeing a judge. “Mr. Walker will ask the federal court to enjoin the city from going back to its prelitigation policy of jailing indigent people for a week or more before they get a bail hearing in a misdemeanor case,” Geraghty said.

The team representing the city of Calhoun includes J. Anderson Davis, Frank Beacham and Sam Lucas of Brinson, Askew, Berry, Seigler, Richardson & Davis in Rome, as well as David Root and Abby Grozine from Carlock, Copeland & Stair in Atlanta, working with city attorney George Govignon. Lucas argued the case at the Eleventh Circuit, twice.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to hear this case at this juncture,” Davis said Tuesday. “As we argued to the Court, the Eleventh Circuit correctly held that the City of Calhoun’s Municipal Court’s November 23, 2015, Standing Bail Order is constitutional. And now, over three years later and after two trips to the Eleventh Circuit, the Municipal Court can operate under the Standing Bail Order with the approval of the Eleventh Circuit.”