Supreme Ct: Homeless People Sleeping Outside Can Be Fined & Jailed. Les Mis, Victor Hugo
- US supreme court rules unhoused people sleeping outside can be fined and jailed, The Guardian, June 28, 2024.
- Ruling strays from earlier decision, which said ban on outside sleep without giving shelter was ‘cruel and unusual punishment’
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The US supreme court has ruled that cities in the US west can criminalize unhoused people sleeping outside even when they lack access to shelter.
The ruling is a victory for Grants Pass, Oregon, which in 2019 passed ordinances prohibiting sleeping and camping in its public parks and on its streets, banning unhoused people from “using a blanket, pillow, or cardboard box for protection from the elements”. The city’s policies call for $295 fines and criminal prosecution punishable by up to 30 days in jail after multiple offenses.
The court ruled 6-3 that it is not “cruel and unusual punishment” under the eighth amendment to ban unhoused people from camping outside when they have nowhere else to go. The decision stands to broadly affect how American cities approach homelessness and could lead to more jurisdictions passing laws to ticket, fine and jail people for living outside, marking a significant erosion of unhoused people’s rights.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote: “Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it … A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness.”
In a blistering dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. The City of Grants Pass jails and fines those people for sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow. For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is ‘cruel and unusual’...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/jun/28/supreme-court-decision-unhoused-sleeping-outside
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- Wiki, Les Misérables is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Les Misérables has been popularized through numerous adaptations for film, television and the stage, including a musical.
Several alternative titles have been used, including The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims, and The Dispossessed. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread and his experience of redemption...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables
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