📩 Supreme Court ruling on City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson; Statement by Alliance for Justice
🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.
People Power United is a proud member of the United for Democracy coalition. In response to the Supreme Court ruling on Trump v United States, one of our fellow coalition members, Alliance for Justice, released this statement:
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2024 – Today the Supreme Court issued its decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, agreeing to uphold Grants Pass’s law that criminalizes sleeping outside and thereby forces all unhoused people to leave the city or face fines and jail time. The ruling suggests a disturbing return to the poorhouses that existed into the early 20th Century that — quite unsuccessfully — tried to solve poverty by punishing it.
The 6–3 partisan ruling concludes that criminalizing sleeping on the street does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. It does so by declining to identify homelessness as a status of people whose circumstances would only be exacerbated by facing fines or jail time for having nowhere else to go.
Justice Sotomayor counters in her dissent on behalf of the liberal justices by pointing out that “sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” and “for some people, sleeping outside is their only option.” Punishing people just for being homeless, she argues, is “unconscionable and unconstitutional,” and policies like Grants Pass’s leave them “with an impossible choice: Either stay awake or be arrested.” Their rights deserve to be safeguarded “even when, and perhaps especially when, doing so is uncomfortable or unpopular.”
Alliance for Justice Vice President of Strategy Keith Thirion issued the following statement:
“There can be nothing crueler than punishing people for their own misfortunes. Today’s Supreme Court ruling harkens back to the Lochner era, when poverty was stigmatized in hopes it could just be shamed away. Many options exist to help unhoused people, but they all involve actually helping them, not simply making their situation worse by racking up fines and jail time. Where is our humanity? When people are in need, forcing them out to make them some other city’s problem is as selfish as it gets. We should be ashamed of this Court and their willingness to protect the wealthy and powerful and clearly no one else.”
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People Power United is a group of community members that champions progressive values and power for the people. The 2024 election depends on us, and we are attempting to persuade people to vote for Freedom over Fascism. If you wish to support our efforts, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Alliance for Justice is at the heart of showing the progressive movement the power the courts have in all our lives. Our more than 130 organizations represent a broad array of groups committed to progressive values. Since 1979, AFJ has been the leader in advocating for a fair and independent justice system, and we have changed the conversation around the critical importance of our courts. We are shaping a tomorrow where rights are safeguarded, and justice prevails.