Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Sleeping Outdoors in Homelessness Case
A case dealing with homelessness stems from a series of local ordinances in Grants Pass, a town of about 40,000 in southern Oregon.June 28, 2024
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld an Oregon city’s laws aimed at banning homeless residents from sleeping outdoors, saying they did not violate the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision is likely to reverberate beyond Oregon, altering how cities and states in the West police homelessness.
The ruling, by a 6-to-3 vote, split along ideological lines, with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch writing for the majority. The laws, enacted in Grants Pass, Ore., penalize sleeping and camping in public places, including sidewalks, streets and city parks.
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that the decision would leave society’s most vulnerable with fewer protections.
Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Sleeping Outdoors in Homelessness Case
The case is likely to have broad ramifications for how cities across the country respond to homelessness.
Our culture is a little squeamish about precise details here. Suffice it to say, even an economy hotel room is likely to include a toilet.
There are of course other considerations, but it's now common for urban dog-walkers to be required to clean up after their dog. Not sure you've ever had a steamer in a baggie in your pocket before. Not as much fun as it sounds.
Other considerations include municipal liability. If it's not illegal for homeless persons to sleep on a park bench, such persons may be vulnerable to "street crime" such as robbery, or violent assault.
If such overnight habitation is illegal, then municipal liability is avoided?
TOPIC QUESTION:
What are homeless citizens supposed to do?
It would be unreasonable to expect government to pay to house such persons in a luxury hotel indefinitely.
Is it any less unreasonable to declare sleeping on a park bench illegal, without providing an alternative?
And if an alternative, what? Volunteering for U.S. military service, where they would be fed, clothed, and housed? Fine, for those eligible.
But what of the rest?
- What are homeless persons to do?
- What is government now to do about them?