Homelessness in the US hit a record high last year, fueled in large part by the nation’s severe shortage of housing.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that it’s constitutional for local governments to make it illegal to sleep in public places, even when there isn’t sufficient shelter space.
The case — City of Grants Pass v. Johnson — is the most consequential the court has decided dealing with homelessness in decades. The decision was authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was joined by the Court’s five other conservatives. The three liberal justices dissented.
The case comes out of Grants Pass, Oregon, where local officials were prevented from clearing a homeless encampment by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rulings in Martin v. Boise and Johnson v. Grants Pass requiring local governments to have sufficient shelter beds available before forcing unhoused people off the streets.
The appeals court — which controls nine western states, including California — decided in both cases that removing people living on the street without providing alternative shelter violates the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court ruled that laws regulating sleeping in public places don’t constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
In his majority opinion, Gorsuch further argued that policy responses to homelessness should be left up to policymakers and voters, writing „a handful of federal judges“ cannot „begin to ‚match‘ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‚how best to handle‘ a pressing social question like homelessness.
