On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city ordinance prohibiting unhoused individuals from using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes for protection while sleeping within city limits does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In response to the ruling, Devon Ombres, senior director for Courts and Legal Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued a statement: "Today, six right-wing justices on the Supreme Court reestablished debtors’ prisons for the 21st century by ruling that the simple act of being homeless and sleeping on the street can be criminalized. Homelessness is a systemic problem and cannot be solved by criminalizing the very act of being unhoused. This ruling is both inhumane and unmoored from principled legal reasoning and precedent. Sleeping or 'camping' in public spaces cannot be a criminal act if there are no indoor spaces available. Under the Eighth Amendment, this ordinance should, under any analysis, be cruel and unusual punishment."
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