Court Opinion

ID: 9443005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:06:40.967203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:19.409598
License: Public Domain

HEALY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I think habeas corpus is available to one detained in custody under bail claimed to be excessive. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2241(c) (1) and (3). The government concedes that it is, and the only cases bearing on the subject support that view.1 See particularly, United States ex rel. Rubinstein v. Mulcahy, 2 Cir., 155 F.2d 1002. If it were otherwise, no adequate remedy for the imposition of excessive bail would exist. Yet the right involved is one guaranteed by the Constitution, the Eighth Amendment of which provides that “Excessive bail shall not be required.” Of course a motion for reduction addressed to the court which has fixed the amount would be a proper course, but in this instance it would obviously be futile. Judge Mathes, who is in charge of the cases below and who fixed the bail, did so after a full hearing of all matters since urged in the habeas corpus proceedings now before us. One can hardly expect him to change his views on a second hearing of the same facts.
The petitioners are accused persons, only, who have not yet been tried on the charge against them, and they are entitled to the usual presumption of innocence appertaining to those of that status. Measured at least by the standards followed by the federal courts elsewhere, their claim that the bail fixed in their cases is excessive is worthy of serious attention. It is notable that in respect of the communist groups rounded up and indicted under the Smith Act in oth*58er places in the country bail has not been fixed in anything approaching the amount here required. It is debatable, too, whether the factors required to be considered in determining the amount of bail, as prescribed in Rule 46(c) of the Federal Criminal Rules, 18 U.S.C.A., were observed in these cases.2
The claim of the petitioners should be considered by this court unfettered by the holding of the majority that no court other than the one which fixed bail has any authority to consider whether the amount is excessive.

. The cases of United States v. Averett and Smith v. Lee, cited in note 4 of the majority opinion, do not support the view expressed in the text of the opinion.

. Rule 46(c) reads: “Bail * * * (c) Amount. If the defendant is admitted to bail, the amount thereof shall be such as in the judgment of the commissioner or court or judge or justice will insure the presence of the defendant, having regard to the nature and circumstances of the offense charged, the weight of the evidence against him, the financial ability of the defendant to give bail and the character of the defendant.”