It was ruled that enforcement of the laws often violated the protections of the First Amendment, especially when police used them against political demonstrators and unpopular groups. U.S. vagrancy laws generally punish the status of being a vagrant and not some overt act. This approach derives from English laws of the 16th cent. England gradually modified its poor laws and today punishes only overt acts dangerous to the community. Vagrants are often tolerated as scavengers, and in certain East Asian countries they are ascribed semireligious qualities, revered, but also feared, for their spiritual powers.
Vagrants are basically a product of unemployment and their numbers swell during depressions.