Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf
Page Number: 59.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

15 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

bly intend to return.”  Brief for Criminal Law and Punish-
ment Scholars as Amici Curiae 12. 

Put another way, the Ordinances single out for punish-
ment the activities that define the status of being homeless. 
By  most  definitions,  homeless  individuals  are  those  that 
lack “a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” 
42  U. S. C.  §11434a(2)(A);  24  CFR  §§582.5,  578.3  (2023). 
Permitting  Grants  Pass  to  criminalize  sleeping  outside 
with as little as a blanket permits Grants Pass to criminal-
ize homelessness.  “There is no . . . separation between be-
ing  without  available  indoor  shelter  and  sleeping  in  pub-
lic—they  are  opposite  sides  of  the  same  coin.”   Brief  for 
United  States  as  Amicus  Curiae  25.    The  Ordinances  use 
the definition of “campsite” as a proxy for homelessness be-
cause  those  lacking  “a  fixed,  regular,  and  adequate 
nighttime residence” are those who need to sleep in public
to “maintai[n] a temporary place to live.”   

Take the respondents here, two longtime homeless resi-
dents  of  Grants  Pass  who  sleep  in  their  cars.    The  Ordi-
nances  define  “campsite”  to 
include  “any  vehicle.” 
§5.61.010(B).  For respondents, the Ordinances as applied 
do  not  criminalize  any  behavior  or  conduct  related  to  en-
campments (such as fires or tents).  Instead, the Ordinances 
target respondents’ status as people without any other form 
of shelter.  Under the majority’s logic, cities cannot crimi-
nalize the status of being homeless, but they can criminal-
ize the conduct that defines that status.  The Constitution 
cannot be evaded by such formalistic distinctions. 

The Ordinances’ definition of “campsite” creates a situa-
tion where homeless people necessarily break the law just 
by existing.  “[U]nsheltered people have no private place to 
survive,  so  they  are  virtually  guaranteed  to  violate  these 
pervasive  laws.”  S.  Rankin,  Hiding  Homelessness:  The 
Transcarceration  of  Homelessness,  109  Cal.  L. Rev.  559, 
561 (2021); see also Disability Rights Brief 2 (“[T]he mem-
bers of Grants Pass’s homeless community do not choose to