MESSAGE
| DATE | 2024-07-01 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] The Supreme Court Says Safe Streets Are
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The Supreme Court Says Safe Streets Are Constitutional
The conservatives on the Supreme Court rescued progressive cities on the
West Coast from themselves on Friday by overruling lower courts that had
created a constitutional right to camp on the streets (City of Grants
Pass v. Johnson). You’re welcome, San Francisco.
Homeless advocates challenged a ban on camping on public property by the
city of Grants Pass, Ore. Offenses are punishable by a $295 fine and
short stints in jail for repeat violations. Such laws are common across
the U.S. But the ever-creative Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in
2018 that such laws violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.
Six Justices on Friday repudiated this dubious constitutional
interpretation. Quoting San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Justice Neil
Gorsuch writes that the Ninth Circuit’s “misapplication of this Court’s
Eighth Amendment precedents” has undermined public safety and made it
harder for cities to encourage the homeless to accept shelter.
Since the 2018 decision, progressives have filed lawsuits across western
states covered by the Ninth Circuit to block anti-camping laws.
Encampments have proliferated. Vagrants have rejected more than half of
San Francisco’s offers of shelter, many citing the Ninth Circuit ruling.
A Grants Pass shelter says utilization has fallen by roughly 40%.
The Ninth Circuit’s ruling also said that cities can’t clear encampments
unless they have more available homeless beds than people on the
streets. Judges have added other stipulations. A federal court in Los
Angeles ruled that cities must first provide “adequate” shelter,
including nursing staff and security.
However, as Justice Gorsuch explains, “the Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Clause focuses on the question what ‘method or kind of punishment’ a
government may impose after a criminal conviction, not on the question
whether a government may criminalize particular behavior in the first
place or how it may go about securing a conviction for that offense.”
The three liberal Justices pointed in dissent to the Court’s anomalous
Robinson (1962) decision, which blocked a state law that criminalized
drug addiction. The Court in that case held that states can’t
criminalize the “status” of being an addict, but said that they could
punish drug use by those suffering from addiction.
Anti-camping laws don’t criminalize status. They prohibit certain
actions. The plaintiffs in Grants Pass sought to extend the Robinson
“rule beyond laws addressing ‘mere status’ to laws addressing actions
that, even if undertaken with the requisite mens rea, might ‘in some
sense’ qualify as ‘involuntary,’ ” Justice Gorsuch writes.
Addressing homelessness is complex, and if people don’t like their
leaders’ policies, they can vote them out. Not so federal judges, who
Justice Gorsuch writes cannot “begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom
the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing
social question like homelessness.”
The Court’s ruling is a boon for constitutional federalism, especially
for cities in California struggling to contain the crime, drug use and
disorder that come with homelessness. Gov. Gavin Newsom supported the
Grants Pass appeal, and he should be grateful.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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