On this News Brief, we are joined by Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center to discuss the upcoming Johnson v. Grants Pass case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on April 22nd 2024. This is the most significant case about the rights of homeless people in decades, determining whether cities can make it a crime to be homeless, to sleep outside, even when there is no safe shelter available to them. We discuss the boarder media narratives that got us to this cruel, irrational point.
  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Website for this case - https://johnsonvgrantspass.com/

    I noticed this...

    At its core, this case will decide whether cities are allowed to punish people for things like sleeping outside with a pillow or blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options.

    6-0 cities can do it? Or 9-0 with a sharp concurrence?

    ---

    I love Citations Needed. But I sort of hate it too. It always depresses the hell out of me.

    • plinky [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Feeling horrible about it, but maybe those christian ultra nerds might decide this is too much. True dark place they decide it correctly, but one of libs jumps.

      Anyway, as guest mentions even if they don't do it it doesn't solve homelessness, merely doesn't terrorize people even more

      • regul [any]
        ·
        7 months ago

        I could see this being an entirely political decision that actually leads to the good outcome of not re-enabling carte blanche.

        The right makes a ton of hay about all the homeless people in "blue" cities, and allowing those cities to once again cram those people in overcrowded jails merely for existing would remove a lot of their ammo.

        But good things rarely happen.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        7 months ago

        My sarcastic vote prediction numbers aside - I'm nearly 100% certain the court with side with the city. The US gets worse and worse and I see nothing to give me hope. The court is shit. And this in in tandem with the dems lurch to the right. I think the dems horrible right-wing border bill - awful as it is - is a baby step towards even more horrible right-wing stuff that they put forward themselves. And if Trump wins in November - in their panic they'll right-wing batshit even faster.

        If the court rules in the cities favor - I expect many cities (in red, purple, or blue states) to "crack down" on homelessness. Pigs will love it. They will wallow in perfect joy in their shit. Alternative media will pay attention to cop violence against the homeless but that will be entirely ignored by the main media outlets. I think one metric in mainstream media of how bad things are getting will be the number of homeless murdered by the pigs. Or in media language "dead after an officer involved shooting/altercation."