Posted on 04/14/2006 4:47:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Los Angeles' policy of arresting homeless people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks as "an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter" violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and punishment, a federal appeals court ruled today.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, decided in favor of six homeless persons, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The suit challenged the city's practice of arresting persons for violating a municipal ordinance, which states that "no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or public way."
The appeals court ruled that the manner in which the city has enforced the ordinance has criminalized "the status of homelessness by making it a crime to be homeless," and thereby violated the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
City officials had no immediate comment on the ruling, but it appeared that the decision could have significant ramifications for the city's policy on the burgeoning problem of homelessness.
In her ruling, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said that Los Angeles' Skid Row has the highest concentration of homeless individuals in the United States. She said that about 11,000 to 12,000 homeless people live in Skid Row, a 50-block area, bounded by Third, Seventh, Main and Alameda Streets.
"Because there is substantial and undisputed evidence that the number of homeless persons in Los Angeles far exceeds the number of available shelter beds at all times, including on the night" the plaintiffs were arrested or cited, "Los Angeles has encroached upon" the plaintiffs' 8th Amendment protections "by criminalizing the unavoidable act of sitting, lying or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless," Wardlaw wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Judge Wardlaw, Clinton appointee, 1995
http://air.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2501
Anyone surprised?
Move them all in with the 9th Circus.
Thanks that was one of my first thoughts, too, that or the aclu lawyers.
Perhaps Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw has room at her house for the overflow.... Maybe the judge will free a homeless mugger because there was not enough federal funds to go around that day.
Yes, it's so much more humane to let these people pass out on the sidewalk than it is to incarcerate them. Very sound thinking at work there. Amazing how many judges have no concept of the real world.
Nah!! It's right there in the Penumbra of the 8th Amendment between excessive bail and unusual punishment. "The right to sleep on the streets shall not be abridged!!"
Don't you see it?
Maybe she ate a burrito as a child.
| ...A family would need to be making over $48,000 a year to afford the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Furthermore, as data reported in December 2004 by Falls Church News-Press reporter Darien Bates indicate, Fairfax County’s “low” poverty rate still leaves “over 43,000 people…surviving on less than half of what they would need to afford their housing.” Paying a larger income percentage on rent, many try to sneak by without medical insurance. Thus, treatable health problems are allowed to worsen, leaving many low-income people one illness or accident away from the economic brink. Sarah Hoover, also interviewed on that PBS episode, was a pretty, healthy-looking young woman who suffered a “medical emergency” that quickly left her unemployed and living at a shelter. She explains, “There was kind of a—a mocking, I guess, in a way, with my situation. ‘What are you doing here?’ And, you know, ‘How could you come to this situation?’ It was hard to find a bond with people, because I didn’t really fit a certain mold, I guess, that a lot of people were used to seeing...” |
That's probably all it takes to qualify as a victim to be given preferences
Judge Wardlaw is yet another multi-millionaire appointed by the Clinton Administration to represent us regular folks.
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