The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a constitutional challenge to ordinances enacted in Grants Pass, Oregon, that punishes homeless people for sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to go.  The highest court in our country is saying that such laws/ordinances are NOT cruel and unusual punishment since “such punishments do not qualify as cruel because they are not designed to ‘superad[d]’ ‘terror, pain, or disgrace.’”  The punishment is simply a fine or 30 days in jail.

“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.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” but the majority said the 8th Amendment cannot be used to determine whether criminalizing sleeping in a public place is illegal.

Persons forced to register have difficulty finding homeless shelters to take them in.  Oregon is no different.  If the 8th Amendment cannot be used to stop the criminalization of homelessness, what defense would?

“Today’s ruling only changes current law in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes California and eight other Western states where the bulk of America’s unhoused population lives…It will almost certainly influence homelessness policy in cities around the country.  (NPR’s Oregon Public Broadcasting: “US Supreme Court says cities can punish people for sleeping in public places”)

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