The Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities can enforce public camping bans, offering hope to communities that have been struggling with an explosion in homelessness for years.
In a 6-3 decision, the court overruled Grants Pass v. Johnson, which barred cities within the 9th Circuit from enforcing bans on public encampments, citing the Eighth Amendment. Cities now have the freedom to determine which policies work best to address homelessness.
“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. “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.”
The case originated when homeless plaintiff Gloria Johnson sued Grants Pass, Oregon, for its ban on public camping in 2018. The case relied on precedent from the 2018 case Martin v. Boise to claim Grants Pass was punishing the “unavoidable consequences” of homelessness, violating the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.” The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2022 on behalf of the plaintiff, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling with Friday’s decision.
“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. “The judgment below is reversed.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor claimed in her dissent that the
