S.F. city attorney condemns state’s bail cash system

San Francisco’s city attorney said Tuesday that a state law requiring people to stay in jail after an arrest if they can’t afford bail is an unfair burden on the poor and called for the system to be abolished. The action does not affect the California law, which still requires all counties, including San Francisco, to set monetary bail for different crimes, in varying amounts depending on the seriousness of the crime. [...] Herrera’s action — the first of its kind, he said, by any municipal government in the country — strengthens the case by a civil rights group that the law is unconstitutional. The Obama administration has also argued, in an Alabama case, that setting bail without regard for a defendant’s ability to pay violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The California suits challenge the law that sets bail for defendants immediately after their arrest, in the amount the county has specified for the alleged crime.