Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf
Page Number: 54.0

10 

CITY OF GRANTS PASS v. JOHNSON 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

belongings to keep warm and dry and when they must have 
their belonging[s] packed up.”  Id., at 199a.  The City could
also “ban the use of tents in public parks,” as long as it did 
not “ban people from using any bedding type materials to
keep warm  and dry while they sleep.”  Id., at 199a–200a. 
Further, Grants Pass could continue to “enforce laws that 
actually further public health and safety, such as laws re-
stricting  littering,  public  urination  or  defecation,  obstruc-
tion  of  roadways,  possession  or  distribution  of  illicit  sub-
stances, harassment, or violence.”  Id., at 200a. 

The Ninth Circuit largely agreed that the Ordinances vi-
olated the Eighth Amendment because they punished peo-
ple  who  lacked  “some  place,  such  as  [a]  shelter,  they  can 
lawfully sleep.”  72 F. 4th 868, 894 (2023).  It further nar-
rowed the District Court’s already-limited injunction.  The 
Ninth Circuit noted that, beyond prohibiting bedding, “the 
ordinances also prohibit the use of stoves or fires, as well as
the  erection  of  any  structures.”    Id.,  at  895.  Because  the 
record did not “establis[h that] the fire, stove, and structure 
prohibitions deprive homeless persons of sleep or ‘the most 
rudimentary precautions’ against the elements,” the court 
remanded for the District Court “to craft a narrower injunc-
tion  recognizing  Plaintiffs’  limited  right  to  protection
against the elements, as well as limitations when a shelter 
bed is available.”  Ibid. 

III 
The Eighth Amendment prohibits the infliction of “cruel
  Amdt.  8  (Punishments 
and  unusual  punishments.” 
Clause).  This prohibition, which is not limited to medieval 
tortures,  places  “ ‘limitations’  on  ‘the  power  of  those  en-
trusted  with  the  criminal-law  function  of  government.’ ”  
Timbs v. Indiana, 586 U. S. 146, 151 (2019).  The Punish-
ments Clause “circumscribes the criminal process in three 
ways: First, it limits the kinds of punishment that can be
imposed on those convicted of crimes; second, it proscribes