Supreme Court Allows City’s Ban on Public Camping Targeting Homeless Encampments

The Supreme Court on June 28 upheld on a 6–3 vote a local ordinance banning public camping, which activists claimed unconstitutionally punished homeless people for being homeless.

The majority opinion in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Three justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.

The Supreme Court held that the enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

Challengers had advanced the novel argument that the local law in Grants Pass, Oregon, violated the Eighth Amendment’s guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

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