The Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities can ticket homeless people for camping in public even when there is no alternative shelter available, a decision that could drastically alter the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans without a permanent place to live.
The justices sided 6-3 with the Oregon city of Grants Pass, which had asked the high court to review a lower court’s decision blocking the enforcement of a public camping ordinance after determining that banning camping where shelter beds were limited amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Grants Pass officials argued that the restrictions imposed by the decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prevented them from implementing “common sense” laws against camping in certain public places. The justices agreed.
“Yes, people will disagree over which policy responses are best; they may experiment with one set of approaches only to find later another set works better; they may find certain responses more appropriate for some communities than others,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “But in our democracy, that is their right.”
“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,” he continued.
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