Whether you live in a city or a small town, you're a winner because of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, announced on Friday. The high court ruled 6-3 that municipalities can ban homeless encampments from sidewalks, parks, and other public areas. Sleeping in the rough is not a constitutionally guaranteed right, said the court.
Lawyers for Grants Pass asked the Supreme Court to overturn Martin, citing the incidence of "crime, fires, the reemergence of medieval diseases," and "record levels of drug overdoses and deaths on public streets" wherever sleeping rough is tolerated. Stunningly, the three justices who dissented in Grants Pass — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — showed no interest in how homeless encampments harm quality of life for other residents. Sotomayor, who penned the dissent, sneered at the majority for framing the problem "as one involving drugs, diseases, and fires instead of one involving people trying to keep warm outside with a blanket.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, cited data from many cities showing that most homeless are living on the street by choice, refusing offers of shelter in favor of easy access to illegal drugs and no shelter rules.
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