Constitutional Rights ??: SCOTUS Criminalizes Homelessness

SCOTUS Criminalizes Homelessness

Unhoused People do not have Constitutional Rights

 Dred Scott: In 1857, SCOTUS ruled that Slaves do not have Constitutional rights. The Court stated that the US Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of Black African descent and, therefore, they did not have Constitutional rights and privileges. 

Grants Pass: On June 28, 2024, SCOTUS ruled that Unhoused People do not have Constitutional Rights. They do not have protection against Cruel and Unusual punishment a right guaranteed by the 8th amendment. The court ruled that the city of Grants Pass can fine and arrest unhoused people who were sleeping outside. SCOTUS ignored lower courts’ rulings that Grants Pass practices were in unconstitutional as they were arresting and citing unhoused people for camping, when they had no other choice but to live on the streets.

“Criminalizing Poverty and Homelessness not only fails to address systemic causes of mass homelessness, it also exacerbates both the underlying structures of oppression that continue to plague our society, racism and classism,” Paul Boden, Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) Director.

“Anti-camping Ordinances result in Citations, Arrests, and Forced Displacement for the inescapably human act of taking up space when you have no home to go to. These ordinances cause essential belongings, including items necessary to basic human survival, to be confiscated and destroyed. And they severely curtail people’s ability to pursue economic and housing security,” stated Terese Howard of House Keys Action Network in Denver, Colorado, a WRAP member group.

“We want to see Everyone have a Safe and Decent Place to call Home. Homelessness kills, housing saves lives – these protections against inhumane policing are critical to forcing local governments to solve the crisis,” Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, a WRAP founding group.

The League is thankful to WRAP and WRAP members and all the groups on the ground who have been fighting marginalization and the criminalization of poverty for years and years.

 SCOTUS Supports a Cruel Attack: Ordinances criminalizing people for their status as unhoused people are not only cruel but are derived from rejected historical campaigns to banish “undesirable” people from public spaces. Civil penalties and/or forced displacement of unhoused residents is a clear form of punishment.

We know that while the system is failing the American and all other people en masse we the workers are not exploitable, we become expendable for the vicious ruling class.

Capitalism Criminalizes not only people who are poor and houseless but also people seeking basic healthcare, activists, BIPOC individuals and communities, and any other groups that fight for a better world.

We know that we must rise up and continue to build power together to ensure we are creating a system to meet the basic human needs of all people and focus on care for the planet and all other living beings. This is not only doable, but it is the biggest and most important task ever facing humanity.

Let us continue building this world with all our focus and all our power now, honoring and learning from all those who went before and built the path before us.

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Let’s talk.     Contact us at ……. https://lrna.org/contact-us/

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“Our country and the world stand at a crossroads. Humanity has the potential for economic security and abundance. A community of the people, by the people, and for the people, where children can grow in peace, is possible as never before. Or–if we do nothing—we face increasingly unlivable conditions caused by private ownership of the wealth that human labor has created. The purpose of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America is to build consciousness and unity among the most impacted workers, to be able to secure the needs of humanity, and avoid the destitution and environmental disaster threatening life on our planet as we know it.”

Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America:

https://lrna.org/lrna-program/

7/1/24