Blue states look to conservative Supreme Court for help on homelessness

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether homeless people have a right to camp on public property, weighing in on an appeal backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who have struggled to manage a record number of people living on the streets.

Democrats in the West have urged the majority conservative high court to overturn a lower court ruling that struck down the anti-camping ordinance of Grants Pass, Oregon, and give them more leeway to address a homeless population that has swelled in recent years.

Leaders of blue states and cities now find themselves in the unusual position of hoping the conservative high court will overrule the generally more liberal Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and allow them to more aggressively act against homeless encampments.

"California has invested billions to address homelessness, but rulings from the bench have tied the hands of state and local governments to address this issue," Newsom said. “The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need.”

The California governor has repeatedly condemned lower court rulings in the case, arguing that they prevent state and local governments from addressing what has become one of the most significant quality-of-life issues for voters across the region.

Judges struck down the Grants Pass ordinance because the small city did not have adequate shelter for the people living on its streets.

That legal precedent has rippled across the West Coast, where a homelessness crisis has led tents to proliferate on sidewalks, in parks and underneath highways.

Like Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed criticized a related ruling that barred her administration from moving people off the street, leading a rally outside a courthouse in an unusually public rebuke of the judicial branch.

Newsom had urged the Supreme Court to take up the case — an unusual stance for the Democratic governor, who has regularly excoriated the conservative court’s decisions on guns and abortion rights.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in April and is expected to issue a ruling by June.