Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf
Page Number: 14.0

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

9 

Opinion of the Court 

806,  841  (ND  Cal.  2022).    That  “misapplication  of  this
Court’s Eighth Amendment precedents,” the Mayor tells us, 
has “severely constrained San Francisco’s ability to address 
the homelessness crisis.”  San Francisco Brief 7.  The city
“uses  enforcement  of  its  laws  prohibiting  camping”  not  to
criminalize  homelessness,  but  “as  one  important  tool
among others to encourage individuals experiencing home-
lessness to accept services and to help ensure safe and ac-
cessible sidewalks and public spaces.”  Id., at 7–8.  Judicial 
intervention restricting the use of that tool, the Mayor con-
tinues,  “has  led  to  painful  results  on  the  streets  and  in 
neighborhoods.”  Id., at 8.  “San Francisco has seen over half 
of its offers of shelter and services rejected by unhoused in-
dividuals, who often cite” the Martin order against the city
“as their justification to permanently occupy and block pub-
lic sidewalks.”  Id., at 8–9. 

An exceptionally large number of cities and States have
filed  briefs  in  this  Court  reporting  experiences  like  San 
Francisco’s.  In the judgment of many of them, the Ninth
Circuit has inappropriately “limit[ed] the tools available to 
local governments for tackling [what is a] complex and dif-
ficult human issue.”  Oregon Cities Brief 2.  The threat of 
Martin  injunctions,  they  say,  has  “paralyze[d]”  even  com-
monsense  and  good-faith  efforts  at  addressing  homeless-
ness.  Brief  for  City  of  Phoenix  et al.  as  Amici  Curiae  36 
(Phoenix Brief ).  The Ninth Circuit’s intervention, they in-
sist, has prevented local governments from pursuing “effec-
tive solutions to this humanitarian crisis while simultane-
ously protecting the remaining community’s right to safely
enjoy  public  spaces.”  Brief  for  International  Municipal
Lawyers Association et al. as Amici Curiae on Pet. for Cert. 
27 (Cities Cert. Brief ); States Brief 11 (“State and local gov-
ernments in the Ninth Circuit have attempted a variety of 
solutions to address the problems that public encampments
inflict on their communities,” only to have those “efforts . . . 
shut down by federal courts”).