Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city ordinance barring unhoused people from using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes for protection from the elements while sleeping within city limits does not violate the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In response, Devon Ombres, senior director for Courts and Legal Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
Today, six right-wing justices on the Supreme Court reestablished debtors’ prisons for the 21st century by ruling that the simple act of being homeless and sleeping on the street can be criminalized. Homelessness is a systemic problem and cannot be solved by criminalizing the very act of being unhoused. This ruling is both inhumane and unmoored from principled legal reasoning and precedent. Sleeping or “camping” in public spaces cannot be a criminal act if there are no indoor spaces available. Under the 8th Amendment, this ordinance should, under any analysis, be cruel and unusual punishment.
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