Are Laws That Prohibit Camping on Public Property Constitutional?
CONS
In 2018, three homeless residents of Grants Pass, Ore. — Debra Blake, Gloria Johnson and John Logan — filed suit against the city, challenging the constitutionality of a set of city ordinances that prohibited sleeping or camping on public streets, sidewalks, parks and other property. The three asserted that the rules were “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment because they targeted individuals for the status of being unhoused….
