In the Grants Pass v. Oregon case, U.S. Supreme Court justices could make a decision that goes past criminalizing homelessness.
Just as the court swept away a half-century of precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade, the court could also upend how we interpret four key words in the Bill of Rights - “cruel and unusual punishments” - with ramifications across the criminal justice system.
✍️: Maurice Chammah, Shannon Heffernan & Beth Schwartzapfel; 🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project
Transcript:
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON 1: We’re arresting…
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON 2: …fining…
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON 3: …and jailing people without homes for sleeping outside.
NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS 1: You can’t do that.
NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS 2: It’s cruel and unusual punishment if they have no other place to sleep.
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON: Can you weigh in here?
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT: We’re listening.
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON 1: We think the 8th Amendment…
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS OREGON 2: …which bans cruel and unusual punishments…
THE CITY OF GRANTS PASS OREGON 3: …applies to punishments for crimes, not laws that criminalize things in the first place.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 1: Well, how we define the 8th amendment also matters.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 2: About 65 years ago, we ruled that we need to apply “evolving standards of decency” to interpret the 8th Amendment.
CHRIS: So courts have ruled with that argument on civil rights, like granting protections against solitary confinement, some executions, terrible prison conditions and more.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 1: But we could abandon the “evolving standards” interpretation for this Oregon case.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 2: So our decision here will primarily affect people without homes…
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 3: …but it could upend protections for incarcerated people, too.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 4: And even if we don’t do that in this case, we could do it in a future one.
#shorts #grantspass #oregon #supremecourt #scotus #homeless
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