The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether cities can ban homeless people from sleeping outside, as the country grapples with increasing rates of Americans living on the streets and a lack of shelter beds. "The ordinances by design make it physically impossible for homeless people to live in Grants Pass without facing endless fines and jail time," Kelsi …
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that an Oregon town wanted unhoused people to "kill themselves" after the municipality moved to punish people for sleeping outside. During oral arguments on Monday, Sotomayor told Theane Evangelis, a lawyer for Grants Pass, that the city's "intent is to remove every homeless person and give them no public space to sit down …
If you are homeless and have nowhere to go — neither a temporary shelter bed nor a permanent home — can you be fined or, worse, jailed for sleeping on a sidewalk? That’s the question that the Supreme Court wrestled with Monday when it heard oral arguments in the case of Grants Pass vs. Johnson regarding the Oregon city’s ordinance …
