A public sleeping ban in Grants Pass, Oregon, did not unconstitutionally criminalize homelessness, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The 6-3 ruling may encourage more jurisdictions to take action against homeless people camping on public property.
Grants Pass enacted a public camping ordinance that prohibited sleeping on sidewalks, streets or alleyways at any time, fining violators $295. Individuals who incurred multiple infractions faced bans from public parks or criminal trespassing charges that carry jail time and hefty fees.
Homeless people in Grants Pass found it impossible to comply with the law, citing the city’s lack of shelter beds. Two homeless residents, Gloria Johnson and John Logan, filed a class action against the city, reports Courthouse News Service.
Johnson and Logan argued that Grants Pass had criminalized involuntary homelessness in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause. They relied on the Supreme Court’s 1962 ruling in Robinson v. California, which held criminalizing the status of being a drug addict was unconstitutional.
Johnson and Logan contended that the Robinson case extended to homelessness, and two lower courts agreed. One of those courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, issued its own precedent in a case called Martin v. Boise, which found fines and jail stints for public sleeping unconstitutional.
The justices were skeptical of Martin during during oral arguments in April.
In Friday's ruling, Justice Neil Gorsuch said, "Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. 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."
He concluded that 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."
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said, "We have never endorsed such a broad view of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. Both this Court and lower courts should be wary of expanding the Clause beyond its original meaning."
In a dissent for the court's three more liberal members, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, "Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. The City of Grants Pass jails and fines those people for sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow.
"For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is 'cruel and unusual' under the Eighth Amendment."
“We are disappointed that a majority of the Court has decided that our Constitution allows a city to punish its homeless residents simply for sleeping outside with a blanket to survive the cold when there is nowhere else for them to go,” said Ed Johnson of the Oregon Law Center.
Friday’s ruling was issued as homelessness in the U.S. grew 12% last year to its highest reported level, as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more people, reports the Associated Press.