Democrats in California want to clear homeless encampments in public areas. So they convinced the conservative US Supreme Court to take up the case.

A homeless encampment sits in front of a city water and power building in Los Angeles, California.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

• The Supreme Court will weigh in on a case that could upend homelessness policy across the US.
• At issue is whether cities can ban homeless individuals from sleeping or camping in public areas.
• In an unusual twist, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the conservative-led Supreme Court to hear the case.

In what is an unusual situation, a consortium of liberal politicians had asked the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that has kept them from sweeping public homeless encampments.

On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in on the issue, a decision that was backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders in the West who are seeking more latitude to address homeless populations that have become more prevalent in the region in recent years — especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is of one of the most significant cases involving the rights of homeless individuals to be taken up by the Supreme Court in recent decades, and it could have huge ramifications on the processes by which Western states approach the ever-present homelessness crisis.

The Supreme Court agreed to reexamine the case of Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, where the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit deemed it unconstitutional for cities to punish homeless residents for staying on public property if they lacked access to shelter alternatives.

Per court filings, Grants Pass — an Oregon city of almost 40,000 residents — lacks a homeless shelter. And two smaller housing programs in the city only "serve only a small fraction" of the homeless population. In 2013, the plaintiff's attorneys wrote that Grants Pass "began aggressively enforcing a set of ordinances that make it unlawful to sleep anywhere on public property with so much as a blanket to survive cold nights."

The Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that the Grants Pass measure, which set out to bar individuals from sleeping in public with items like blankets and other protections, was in violation of the Eighth Amendment which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments."

The issue has united many liberal and conservative politicians as they've asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit's ruling in the Grants Pass case.

Newsom, along with Democratic leaders in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu, now find themselves on the same side as Arizona Republican lawmakers who are also seeking to tackle homelessness in public spaces.

"California has invested billions to address homelessness, but rulings from the bench have tied the hands of state and local governments to address this issue," Newsom said in a statement on Friday. "The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need."

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in April, with a decision expected by the early summer.

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