Homeless encampments line the streets in Oakland, California, on March 15, 2024. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
In the contentious two-and-a-half hours of arguments, the justices repeatedly questioned whether the city's law banned conduct or status – just camping on public property vs. the larger situation of being homeless.
"Your ordinance goes way beyond that," said Justice Elena Kagan. "Your statute says that person cannot take himself and himself only, and can't take a blanket and sleep someplace without it being a crime... It seems like you're criminalizing a status."
But others on the bench said these difficult on-the-ground discretionary decisions should best be left out of the hands of judges.
"Municipalities have competing priorities," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "What if there are lead pipes in the water? Do you build the homeless shelter or do you take care of the lead pipes? Why would you think these nine people [on the court] are the best to weigh those policy judgments?"
Cities across the country will watch how the nine justices rule on this balancing act between helping the misfortunate with a range of public benefits vs. the financial and social costs associated, including crime, mental health and sanitation concerns.
San Francisco in an amicus brief said it spent over $672 million last year to provide shelter and housing for the homeless, but public encampments continue to grow. The city says its inability to enforce its own laws "has made it more difficult to provide services" to that population.
About 600 people are estimated to be involuntarily unsheltered in Grants Pass, a scenic area surrounded by the Klamath Mountains in the southwest part of the state along the Rogue River.
A homeless encampment below an overpass in Oakland, California, on March 15, 2024. (DWS for Fox News Digital)
California, Washington, Florida and New York represent more than half the homeless population, with California alone comprising 28%, according to the HUD study.
Officials cite a dramatic rise in rents, as well as a drop in coronavirus pandemic-related public assistance.
The Justice Department is supporting neither party in the Grants Pass case, but says a federal appeals court properly concluded ordinances punishing people for sleeping outside where there is insufficient shelter space are unconstitutional. But it added that applying its ruling to all homeless people was wrong, "without requiring a more particularized inquiry into the circumstances of the individuals to whom those ordinances may be applied."
The key to resolving this case could be how the Supreme Court applies its 1962 precedent in Robinson v. California. There, the justices concluded the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" prevents cities from criminalizing a person's drug status – for simply being an "addict." But states could prosecute drug "conduct" – buying, selling or possession of narcotics.
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The case is City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson (23-175).
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