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34 

CITY OF GRANTS PASS v. JOHNSON 

Opinion of the Court 

federal judges to freeze into place their own rules on mat-
ters long “thought to be the province” of state and local lead-
ers, id., at 536, and one that would deny communities the
“wide latitude” and “flexibility” even the dissent acknowl-
edges they need to address the homelessness crisis, post, at 
2, 5. 

III 
Homelessness is complex.  Its causes are many.  So may
be  the  public  policy  responses  required  to  address  it.    At 
bottom,  the  question  this  case  presents  is  whether  the 
Eighth Amendment grants federal judges primary respon-
sibility  for  assessing  those  causes  and  devising  those  re-
sponses.  It does not.  Almost 200 years ago, a visitor to this
country remarked upon the “extreme skill with which the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  succeed  in  proposing  a
common object to the exertions of a great many men, and in 
getting them voluntarily to pursue it.”  2 A. de Tocqueville, 
Democracy in America 129 (H. Reeve transl. 1961).  If the 
multitude of amicus briefs before us proves one thing, it is
that the American people are still at it.  Through their vol-
untary associations and charities, their elected representa-
tives and appointed officials, their police officers and men-
tal health professionals, they display that same energy and 
skill today in their efforts to address the complexities of the 
homelessness challenge facing the most vulnerable among 
us. 

Yes, people will disagree over which policy responses are 
best; they may experiment with one set of approaches only 
to find later another set works better; they may find certain 
responses  more  appropriate  for  some  communities  than 
others.  But in our democracy, that is their right.  Nor can 
a handful of federal judges begin to “match” the collective 
wisdom the American people possess in deciding “how best 
to  handle”  a  pressing  social  question  like  homelessness. 
Robinson,  370  U. S.,  at  689  (White,  J.,  dissenting).    The