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Press Release: Supreme Court to Review Homeless Camping in Public Spaces

By • January 14, 2024

The following press release was sent out by the Office of Attorney General Raúl Labrador on January 12, 2024. Press releases do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

(BOISE) – Today, the Supreme Court of the United States granted a petition to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in City of Grants Pass v. Gloria Johnson after Attorney General Raúl Labrador led a 20-state coalition asking the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case.

City of Grants Pass v. Gloria Johnson deals with the ability of local governments to address homeless camping on city streets, sidewalks, and public spaces.

Other cases dealing with this subject include the 2009 case of Martin v. City of Boise, where the Ninth Circuit found that the Eighth Amendment gives people the right to sleep, camp, and defecate in public spaces and prevented cities from doing anything about it. In this case, the Ninth Circuit went even further and held that the Eighth Amendment even prevents civil fines for living in public parks and spaces. These decisions have stripped states of their right and ability to regulate public spaces.

“We have all witnessed the impacts on the public streets and spaces of once-beautiful cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. Homelessness, fueled often by the enabling policies of legalized drugs, has destroyed the vitality of these cities, as residents sidestep used needles, garbage, and human waste in their public spaces. This is at the heart of preserving livability in cities everywhere and I’m very pleased the Supreme Court is taking this matter before them,” said Attorney General Labrador.

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Tags: Boise, City of Grants Pass v. Gloria Johnson, Homeless Camping, Homelessness, Martin v. City of Boise, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

8 thoughts on “Press Release: Supreme Court to Review Homeless Camping in Public Spaces”

  1. It would seem that those 9th Circuit decisions would, by inference, also invalidate all zoning and public indecency regulations. If anything goes, anywhere, for the “unhoused,” then shouldn’t the same apply to other citizens, all things being equal?

  2. Boise City was the lead case in this until Lauren McClain was elected and decided to drop the appeal. She’s always talking about making Boise more like Portland.

    I’ve been to Portland. It’s a he__hole. And that’s not hyperbole. You have people literally camped out on the medians between the major highways. There is so much garbage on the major highways you risk hitting something damaging to your vehicle like a hubcap or worse just driving through. Neither State nor City police will respond to evict squatters from your property. And let’s not forget the civil unrest that made downtown Portland into a scene from Mad Max – a scene that plays on today.

    But you see, that’s exactly what Lauren McClain wants.

    I’ve lived in Boise for 40 years. It was a beautiful city supported by solid, hard-working people. Now it’s rapidly descending into the same pit as many other major cities across the US run by Democrats.

    1. They should camp outside her home. I agree with the others, we should not have to pay for camp grounds! We need to keep fighting for what’s right or else we will see Skid Row over here. Why people keep voting her in is beyond me! I propose that all who voted for her ought to put homeless and illegal immigrants to love in their front yard, heck even their basement!

  3. So then in allowing the homeless to not adhere to zoning and public indecency regulations, the government has therefore created multiple classes of citizens. If not, we should all be allowed to defecate on Lauren McClean’s front lawn.

    Lauren McClean is a horrible politician and behind turning Boise into a cesspool! We need to replace her with a conservative again or there isn’t going to be anything good left of our city!

  5. This has been a sore point for me. I can’t scream at the top of my lungs (1st Amendment) at 3AM on a residential sidewalk (public space). I can’t take out a Glock (2nd Amendment) and start target practicing in the street in that neighborhood, and so on. So, the Marxist 9th Circuit court is full of crap that a city cannot enact an ordinance that says, NO CAMPING WITHIN CITY LIMITS.

    That’s not cruel and unusual punishment! People camp in the woods all the time.

  6. so remind me again why am i paying to camp at parks? how can they give me a ticket for being their after dark?

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