Emergency Meeting on the Supreme Court Ruling on Anti-Camping Laws

Emergency Meeting on the Supreme Court Ruling on the Anti-Camping Laws in the Grants Pass v Johnson Case

“Homelessness is complex,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, writing for the majority. “Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. 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.”

Regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” under the 8th Amendment — a clause that the court said is restricted to limiting the type and severity of punishment, not the reason for punishment. And the types of punishment Grants Pass imposed on homeless residents — “limited” fines and a maximum jail sentence of 30 days — don’t qualify as cruel and unusual because they aren’t designed to impose “terror, pain or disgrace,” he wrote.