Homeless people can be ticketed for sleeping outside, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of an Oregon city that ticketed homeless people for sleeping outside, rejecting arguments that such “anti-camping” ordinances violate the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of an Oregon city that ticketed homeless people for sleeping outside, rejecting arguments that such “anti-camping” ordinances violate the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for the 6-3 conservative majority, with the three liberal justices dissenting. The case centered on “anti-camping” ordinances in Grants Pass, Oregon, that were challenged by several residents experiencing homelessness. It had been watched closely by city and state officials who are uncertain how to respond to a surge in homelessness and encampments that have cropped up under bridges and in city parks across the nation. It’s also being followed by people who live in those encampments and are alarmed by efforts to criminalize the population rather than build shelters and affordable housing. “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,” Gorsuch wrote in his majority opinion. Gorsuch wrote that “Homelessness is complex” and that “its causes are many.”