As part of a suite of highly controversial rulings issued on Friday, June 28, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a ban on outdoor sleeping in the city of Grants Pass, Oregon. Known as a “homeless ban,” the rule targets persons caught sleeping outside of private property with fines, which can eventually escalate to jailtime.
A challenge of the homeless ban sought to have the rule stricken based on the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Yet in a 6-3 ruling the conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court reversed a lower court injunction on the city’s ban, arguing that because the punishment (fines) was neither an unusual form of punishment nor technically inherently cruel, the ban was therefore constitutional.
The minority’s dissent decried this decision, arguing that criminalizing the human necessity of sleep was inherently cruel and unusual.
In a statement to the press, Jeff Metzger of the Springfield-based Supportive Housing Providers Association said of the Court’s decision, “This was a giant step backwards in the quest to prevent and end homelessness. It will do nothing to address the primary cause of homelessness in the United States: a severe, prolonged, nationwide shortage of affordable housing.
This decision opens the floodgates for local leaders to potentially turn their energies to policing the homeless by increasing fines, arrests and imprisonments, rather than focusing on increased funding for supportive housing and ending homelessness once and for all.”
The SHPA vowed that it would continue to seek state funding to support supportive housing projects.
“Everyone in Illinois deserves a safe and secure place to call home and today’s decision reaffirms this now more than ever.”
Region: Springfield,Local,City: Springfield,Region: Central
via Local – WMAY – 92.7 WMAY https://www.wmay.com
June 29, 2024 at 08:26PM
Illinois Delivered 