The Christian Science Monitor

Can cities criminalize camping? Here’s what to know about Supreme Court case.

Can communities make it a crime to sleep outside?

That question lies at the heart of a case being heard at the Supreme Court Monday.

Everyone involved in the case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, agrees that homelessness is a complex problem gripping the United States. But they disagree about how cities should be able to address it.

In 2013, Grants Pass, a small city in southwest Oregon, enacted an ordinance criminalizing public camping. A group of homeless individuals sued in 2018, arguing that because they had nowhere else to sleep – the city has a single 138-bed overnight shelter – the ordinance violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

A panel of judges

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