Get news and commentary on the California issues you care about in one email.Get the news that matters to all Californians. Start every week informed.A lot is at stake with the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case that determines how and when cities can clear homeless camps. The Eighth Amendment has been largely settled for decades, but the conservative court seems determined to set the clock back.
The Supreme Court declined to hear Boise’s appeal of the Martin case, but last week it took the Grants Pass case after Republican appointees on the Ninth Circuitlast year not to review the ruling. Homelessness policy creates strange bedfellows, and Gov. Gavin Newsom and city attorneys across CaliforniaThe Supreme Court has gone out of its way to take Grants Pass, which does not bode well for the protections afforded by the Eighth Amendment or the basic rights and wellbeing of homeless people.
Newsom and others have sided with this cramped view of the Constitution because they say the courts have tied their hands, but this is disingenuous. The governor and city attorneys are explicitly asking the Supreme Court to permit them to use criminal and civil penalties to punish people because of a collective government failure to provide affordable housing and adequate shelter across the state.Overturning Martin and Grants Pass would be a mistake.
Of course, the Supreme Court could affirm the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Grants Pass, sending a message that homeless people are protected by the Constitution like everyone else. The justices could also reverse the circuit court on narrow grounds without undermining many decades of Eighth Amendment cases.
Whatever the outcome, officials across California should not return to criminalizing homelessness or use inhumane shelter options like sweltering asphalt as a cover for failed policies.We've recently sent you an authentication link. Please, check your inbox!Catch up on the top stories in California with a summary of our reporting and commentary from the past week.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
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