The high court’s ruling upends a 2018 decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case known as Martin v. Boise. In that case, the appeals court found that the Idaho city could not enforce an ordinance that banned sleeping on public property if there wasn’t available housing or shelter to accommodate unhoused people. It said to do so would violate the Eighth Amendment.
The case has had widespread implications for cities and counties throughout the western United States. Officials have struggled to swiftly expand housing and shelter space to meet the ruling’s standards, while simultaneously trying to address sprawling homeless encampments that have drawn public ire.