U.S. Supreme Court justices confronted the nation's homelessness crisis on Monday as they wrestled with the legality of local laws used against people who camp on public streets and parks in a case involving a southwest Oregon city's anti-vagrancy policy.
The justices heard arguments in an appeal by the city of Grants Pass of a lower court's ruling that enforcing these anti-camping ordinances against homeless people when there is no shelter space available violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments.
Some of the conservative justices appeared to question the lower court's decision or suggested that homeless people would have an alternate legal avenue to pursue.