Federal court rules cities can't arrest homeless for sleeping in public spaces

Popular Resistance -A federal court ruled last week it will not review a decision that cities cannot arrest people for sleeping on public property unless they have provided adequate shelter. The case, Martin v. City of Boise, was before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling could still be taken up the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling means cities cannot enforce anti-vagrancy or similar laws designed to clear the streets of the homeless, but it also can’t force them to build new shelters to house the homeless. The court ruled that punishing the homeless who have nowhere else to sleep is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

“Criminally punishing homeless people for sleeping on the street when they have nowhere else to go is inhumane, and we applaud the Court for ruling that it is also unconstitutional,” Maria Foscarinis, executive director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, said in a statement.