Supreme Court allows Oregon city policy targeting homeless people
The Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to ordinances enacted by a small city in Oregon that punish homeless people for sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to go.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a constitutional challenge to ordinances enacted by a small city in Oregon that punish homeless people for sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to go.
The justices on a 6-3 vote on ideological lines with conservatives in the majority ruled in favor of the city of Grants Pass, saying the measures do not run afoul of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.
Fruitdale Park on March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Ore.Jenny Kane / AP"Homelessness is complex," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the ruling. "Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. At bottom, the question this case presents is whether the Eighth Amendment grants federal judges primary responsibility for assessing those causes and devising those responses. It does not."
In a sharp dissent, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the Grants Pass policy was "unconscionable and unconstitutional." She added that in the future she hoped the court "will play its role in safeguarding constitutional liberties for the most vulnerable among us."
For the second day in a row, Sotomayor made her strong feelings known by reading a summary of her dissent in the courtroom.
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