June 28, 2024
In a major defeat for the homeless community and their advocates — the Supreme Court just ruled – no – it does not violate the 8th Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause when cities and states ban limit and punish people who sleeping on public streets. Those punishments including fines and jail time are constitutional. In today’s 6 to 3 ruling all the conservative justices were in the majority with the court’s opinion written by Justice Gorsuch and the three liberal justices all dissented.
As you know – homelessness – especially in western states is a serious, serious problem. Most of those western states have created rules that allow the local and state authorities to implement anti-camping ordinances and city codes that allow for the local authorities to simply dismantle and clear out those encampments when they’re on public property. And one of those cities is Grants Pass in Oregon. That city implemented a pretty strict anti-camping ordinance and enforced it. Part of that ordinance says homeless people are prohibited from “using a blanket, pillow or cardboard box for protection from the elements.” For the record there are shelter beds available in grants pass – but like with most shelters there are rules associated with occupying one of those beds. Back in October of 2018 some of those unhoused people in grants pass sued. Gloria Johnson was one. She says she is involuntarily homeless and the city doesn’t have adequate shelter options for her. So because of the strict anti-camping ordinance — she has faced citations for camping in the public park and is prohibited from sleeping in her van in the city limits and that violates the 8th amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause and excessive fines clause. The lower courts agreed with her and for the last few years that ruling has prohibited several western states including Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Washington from enforcing punishments for homeless people for sleeping on public property when they cannot get shelter anywhere else.
The Supreme Court says no. That was wrong those judges don’t have that power. Justice Gorsuch writes “homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. At bottom, the question this case presents is whether the eighth amendment grants federal judges primary responsibility for assessing those causes and devising those responses. It does not.”
In her fiery dissent, Justice Sotomayor starts by saying “sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option.” She goes on to say “no one contests that local governments can regulate the time, place, and manner of public sleeping pursuant to their power to “enact regulations in the interest of the public safety, health, welfare or convenience.” …when exercising that power, however, regulations still “may not abridge the individual liberties secured by the constitution.”
This case will now be returned back to the lower courts to continue to play out but in the meantime it appears like Grants Pass and these other states can continue to enforce their anti-camping ordinances and punishments.
Read the ruling here.
