Laws that make it a crime for homeless people to sleep in public places even when there isn't enough room for them at a shelter unconstitutionally punish the homeless, lawyers for the Obama administration said in a court filing on Thursday.
The federal government took this position against so-called anti-camping laws in an ongoing case against the city of Boise, Idaho, which has enforced ordinances banning sleeping in public spaces and ended up convicting homeless plaintiffs.
Attorneys in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division argued that "the conduct of sleeping in a public place is indistinguishable from the status of homelessness" and that it should be "uncontroversial that punishing conduct that is a universal and unavoidable consequence of being human" violates the Eighth Amendment. They noted that "finding a safe and legal place to sleep can be difficult or even impossible" for many homeless people.
[For more of this story, written by Ryan J. Reilly, go to https://www.pacesconnection.com/...1#421545695383913671]
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