The Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities can fine homeless people for camping in public even when no alternative shelter is available, a ruling that could drastically alter the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans without a permanent place to live.
The justices sided 6-3 with the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, which asked the high court to review a lower court’s decision blocking enforcement of a public camping law after ruling that the ban on camping where shelter beds were limited amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Grants Pass officials argued that restrictions imposed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling prevent them from implementing “common sense” laws against camping in certain public places, which the justices agreed with.
“Yes, people will disagree about which policy responses are best; they may try one set of approaches only to discover later that another set works better; they may find certain responses more appropriate for some communities than others,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “But in our democracy, that’s their right.”
“The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution performs many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to strip these rights and responsibilities away from the American people and, in their place, dictate this nation’s homelessness policy,” he continued.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.
“For people without access to shelter, it punishes them for being homeless,” Sotomayor said of the city’s law. “This is unfair and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is ‘cruel and unusual’ under the Eighth Amendment.”
Grants Pass’ anti-camping law would fine homeless people $295 a night for sleeping in the city’s public parks. Lawyers representing the city’s homeless population argued that allowing the rule to remain would essentially criminalize homelessness.
During oral arguments in April, the justices acknowledged the complicated issue of homelessness in the U.S.
Sotomayor raised that sleeping is a biological necessity and that some people may be forced to do so outdoors if other shelter is not available. Justice Brett Kavanaugh questioned whether fining people for sleeping outdoors helps solve the problem if there is no alternative. And Gorsuch pointed to the health risk posed by allowing camps to remain.
Homelessness rates remain at record levels as housing prices continue to rise. There are about 650,000 homeless people in the country, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with about a third of them living on the West Coast.
The justices previously declined to consider a similar appeal of the lower court’s 2019 ruling, which found that sleeping outdoors on public property — when there is no option to sleep indoors — cannot be criminalized “on the basis of false premise that they had a choice in the matter.” matter.”
The Associated Press contributed.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
