U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday grilled an attorney for an Oregon city over the municipality’s ordinances that allow for criminal penalties for homeless encampments.
“You don't arrest people who are sleeping on the beach, as I tend to do, if I've been there a while. You only arrest people who … don’t have a home?” Sotomayor said, noting the city doesn’t criminalize people sleeping on public grounds if they have a home.
At issue before the court Monday morning was Grants Pass’ ordinances prohibiting people who are homeless from “using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes for protection from the elements while sleeping within the city limits,” per SCOTUSblog, and whether the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits criminal penalties for people experiencing homelessness who do not have access to shelter. Those challenging the ordinances argue the city is effectively criminalizing homelessness and would set a devastating precedent for the country.
During oral arguments, Sotomayor honed in on that argument:
“What you do is say, only homeless people who sleep outdoors will be arrested. That's the testimony of your chief of police,” Sotomayor said to Theane Evangelis. “If you read the crime, it's only stopping you from sleeping in public for the purpose of maintaining a temporary place to live. The police officers testified that that means that if a stargazer wants to take a blanket or a sleeping bag out at night to watch the stars and falls asleep, you don't arrest them. You don't arrest babies who have blankets over them.”
Evangelis denied the characterization, saying “there’s nothing in the law that criminalizes homelessness.”
“That's what you say, but if I look at the record and see differently,” the liberal justice said.
Overall, justices expressed concerns about punishing homeless people for sleeping outside when they cannot go to shelter, but they also noted that local and state leaders need to have flexibility given the growing numbers of people who are homeless nationwide.
Conservative justices suggested that lawmakers and elected officials should set local rules on the matter.
“Why would you think these nine people are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?” Chief Justice John Robers asked a lawyer for the Biden administration.
It’s not clear how broad or narrow a SCOTUS ruling would be.
