SCOTUS OKs Ban on Homeless People Sleeping Outdoors

The Supreme Court is wrapping up its current session with a deluge of high-profile cases, and on Friday, it added even more rulings to the mix. Among them: a 6-3 decision by the high court to allow US cities to enforce restrictions on homeless people sleeping outside, overturning a San Francisco appeals court's finding that such bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment, reports the AP.

• Origins: The case reviewed laws on the matter in rural Grants Pass, Oregon, where three homeless people sued the city in 2018 when officials started enforcing bans on sleeping or camping in such public places as parks, or even in parked cars, reports the Washington Post.

• Repercussions: The fines for such an infraction ranged from $75 to $295, with even more penalties racking up if the fine remained unpaid. CNN notes that after two tickets, a person could be banned from a park for 30 days, with violators of that spending up to 30 days behind bars.
• For: Advocates for the bans on both sides of the aisle say that cities not being able to enforce similar restrictions would make it challenging to handle outdoor encampments that have been popping up on sidewalks and other public spots out West, including California. "Cities across the West report that the 9th Circuit's involuntary test has [created] intolerable uncertainty for them," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority in the ruling, noting that the "American people" should decide on this "complex" and "pressing" social issue, not federal judges, per the AP.
• Against: Critics, however, say these laws only criminalize homeless people further, and that cities had already been allowed to regulate the encampments. They also note that in some places, homeless individuals simply have nowhere to go when all of the shelters are full. "Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime," noted Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent with colleagues Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. "Punishing people for their status is 'cruel and unusual' under the Eighth Amendment."
• Grants Pass: The city's take has been that the "cruel and unusual" punishment reference in the Eighth Amendment was meant to refer to hard-labor situations, or torture—not for "low-level fines and very short jail terms," a city attorney noted during April oral arguments.
• Stats: More than 650,000 people in the US are said to be homeless, the most ever, per the AP. Nearly half of those individuals sleep outside.
• What's next: The case is now kicked back to the lower courts. It's not clear whether Grants Pass is able to enforce its bans again.

(More homeless stories.)