Supreme Court Rules Cities Can Ban Homeless Sleeping Outside
Elizabeth Troutman @ElizTroutman Elizabeth Troutman is a reporting fellow for The Daily Signal. Send her an email.
The Supreme Court sided with a small Oregon city’s crackdown on homeless people sleeping in public in its ruling Friday in the case of City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, wrote, “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”
The Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of ordinances in Grants Pass, a city in southwest Oregon with a population of about 40,000, that fines homeless people for using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes while sleeping in public within city limits.
Grants Pass residents who have been homeless, including Gloria Johnson, sued the city in this case.
Grants Pass maintained the ordinances bar camping on public property by everyone, while the counsel of the defendant argued the laws make homelessness a crime, violating the “cruel and unusual punishment” ban in the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.