SCOTUS: Denying homeless people a place to sleep is not cruel or unusual

And hypocritical bullshit at that.
Why is it the courts are not the arbiters of identifying causes and cures for homelessness, but according to the Chevron ruling, they are the arbiters of identifying and solving all problems that used to fall to federal agencies to identify and solve?

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I hope those fascist judges never get another decent night’s sleep. Fuckers.

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Only a little?

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It’s more because punishing someone for their status, rather than for their actions, is inherently cruel and unusual. Years ago, some state or city, I can’t remember where, passed a law which criminalized not just being under the influence of illegal drugs or possessing illegal drugs, but being addicted to illegal drugs. The Supreme Court held that law to be unconstitutional because it was criminalizing someone’s status rather than their actions.

At first glance, you might think that enforcing laws banning camping in a city park and other public locations are also punishing actions. And they are in most cases. If I went down to a city park in Toms River, New Jersey tonight with a sleeping bag, and tried to camp out there, that would be a voluntary act on my part. But if you are homeless, it isn’t really voluntary. Everyone has to sleep. It’s a necessary human function. If you are homeless, you may very well find yourself in a situation where you can’t find a place to sleep without breaking a law. If you try to camp out and crash on private property, you’re trespassing. And in cities with bans on camping on public property, you would be breaking that law if you sleep on public property. If there aren’t any shelter beds where you can sleep, which is often the case, you then can’t sleep anywhere without breaking a law. But you have to sleep. Therefore, these laws, for all intents and purposes, criminalize being homeless. And that was considered cruel and unusual until this last Friday. I think it still is. So do Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Hopefully some day that will be the law of the land again, but for now, I guess the message is…don’t be homeless.

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That were backed by enabling legislation that gave them that power.

They either want to throw it back on the legislature that’s already legislated, or throw it on the courts, that aren’t qualified to decide the technical issues.

The goal is to gut federal agencies of any power at all.

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from that headline:

i think even that is bs.

yes, to extent we need more housing. but kind of like people going hungry when there’s plenty of food to around: there’s ( close to) sufficient housing.

mostly: people aren’t without shelter because their place was knocked down. people are without shelter because the rent is too damn high.

houses and rentals are shopped as securities now. and air bnb has colonized “inlaw” cottages, spare rooms, houses, condos, and apartments.

a problem with focusing on things like increasing housing supply, providing vouchers, etc. is that it will be funneling even more money into private hands

what people need i think is rent control, restrictions of corporate ownership, and enforcement of hotel and rental laws. but that’s never going to be a “talking heads” point - because it’s anti-capitalist

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It is a problem without borders.

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According to Spanish Transportation Ministry… the most expensive [per] square meter is Santa Eulària des Riu… it costs €5,194 ($5,550). Second is the city of Ibiza, at €4,624 ($4,940)

!!!

i will say, at least they acknowledge the cause ( if not the solution. ) us politicians and us media all want to talk about “shortage”

maybe it’s easier on an island because it’s possible to blame tourists rather than “the market?” dunno.

you’re right tho that it’s an issue in many places. which seems even more painful to me, because the solution seems obvious. not (just) build more houses, but stop the speculation, regulate rents, and tax the *@#! out of investment properties.

( or, i guess. dismantle capitalism completely? )

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