Supreme Court may soon allow arrests for homelessness
By Erwin Chemerinsky / Los Angeles Times
Is homelessness a crime? The answer should obviously be no. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a case that poses that question, and there is every reason to fear that the conservative justices will allow governments to criminalize sleeping in public spaces even if people have nowhere else to go.
The case, Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, involves a local ordinance for the Oregon city that says: “No person may sleep on public sidewalks, streets, or alleyways at any time as a matter of individual and public safety.” The law also prohibits homeless people from using blankets, pillows or cardboard boxes for protection from the elements.
A panel of the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declared this unconstitutional, concluding that the government can’t punish people criminally or civilly for being unhoused or for having bedding materials. The court relied on its consequential 2018 ruling in Martin v. Boise, which held that the 8th Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment “prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter.”
The Supreme Court declined to review Martin v. Boise but was expected to take the Grants Pass case. When the entire 9th Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly declined to review its panel’s decision in the latter case, the court’s Republican-appointed judges vehemently dissented and could not have been more emphatic in urging Supreme Court review.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-supreme-court-may-soon-allow-arrests-for-homelessness/
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This is on the folks that didn’t vote and also complained, “There is no difference between Hilary and tfg”. 
