WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court justices confronted the nation’s homelessness crisis on Monday as they wrestled with the legality of local laws used against people who camp on public streets and parks in a case involving a southwest Oregon city’s anti-vagrancy policy.
The justices heard arguments in an appeal by the city of Grants Pass of a lower court’s ruling that enforcing these anti-camping ordinances against homeless people when there is no shelter space available violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments.
Some of the conservative justices appeared to question the lower court’s decision or suggested that homeless people would have an alternate legal avenue to pursue. The liberal justices appeared ready to side with the homeless plaintiffs who challenged the city’s laws. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Advocates for the homeless, various liberal legal groups and other critics have said laws like these criminalize people simply for being homeless and for actions they cannot avoid, such as sleeping in public. They point to a 1962 Supreme Court ruling that the Eighth Amendment barred punishing individuals based on their status.