Ruling from the Supreme Court US cities can ban homeless people from sleeping outside
Hundreds of thousands of people in the USA have no fixed abode. Almost half of them sleep outdoors. The Supreme Court is now giving cities the opportunity to take action against this.
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- The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that cities can enforce sleeping bans in public spaces against homeless people.
- It is the most significant Supreme Court decision on homelessness in decades.
- Six votes to three: The conservative majority of judges were in favor of the decision, the liberal minority against.
Homeless people in the USA will face even tougher times in the future. The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that cities can enforce sleeping bans in public spaces against homeless people - even in areas on the West Coast where there is a lack of emergency accommodation. The decision of the nine-judge panel was made by six votes to three - along ideological lines: The conservative majority of judges were in favor of the decision, the liberal minority against.
It is the most significant decision by the Supreme Court on the subject of homelessness in decades. It comes at a time when a growing number of US citizens have no fixed abode. The court overturned the decision of a Francisco-based appeals court, which had classified sleeping bans as cruel treatment.
"Homelessness is complex. Its causes are manifold. So are the policies needed to combat it," wrote conservative judge Neil Gorsuch. "A handful of federal judges cannot match the collective wisdom of the American people when it comes to deciding how best to address a pressing social issue like homelessness." He suggested that people who have no choice but to sleep outdoors could invoke a kind of "self-defense" should they be fined or otherwise punished.
Homelessness is criminalized
Representing the liberal minority on the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said: "Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime." Advocates for homeless people said that allowing cities to penalize people who need a place to sleep worsens the homelessness crisis. This criminalizes homelessness.
Until now, cities have been able to regulate camps, but not prohibit people from sleeping outside. The number of homeless people in the USA is estimated at more than 650,000. This is the highest number since the introduction of an annual census in 2007. Almost half of those affected sleep outdoors.
dpa