The Supreme Court will soon take up Grants Pass v. Johnson, one of the highest-profile cases this term. Grants Pass is an Oregon city whose laws aimed at restricting street homelessness were struck down by the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Many expect the Supreme Court to reverse Grants Pass and with it, the previous Ninth Circuit decision on which it is based, Boise v. Martin. In doing so, the court will authorize cities to clear the dangerous encampments now plaguing so much of urban America.
That the highest court in the land has had to get involved in homelessness, often seen as a local issue, is a measure of how bad street conditions have become throughout the West Coast. Public camping has contributed to soaring fatal overdose statistics, fires threatening core infrastructure, and infectious disease outbreaks. California’s social struggles are various. But nothing has contributed to the state’s dystopian vibes quite like its inability to stop tents from proliferating everywhere.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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