California leaders, beleaguered by homelessness crisis, want more power to clear camps

A tense debate across the American West over whether homeless people should be allowed to sleep in public has created some strange bedfellows in California.

In recent days, some of the state's most prominent liberal leaders have pushed back against a set of court rulings that have restricted local authorities from clearing streets in certain situations, such as when people are living outdoors in cities without shelter beds to offer.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a prominent Democrat on the national stage, has gone so far as to ask the conservative U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, while San Francisco Mayor London Breed — also a Democrat — has said her city will relaunch efforts to clear encampments after securing a "clarification" on the law from a lower appellate court.

Both Newsom and Breed have split from many