Since cruel and unusual punishment is presented in the U.S. Five years later, San Francisco began enforcing its РІР‚Сљsit-lieРІР‚Сњ ordinance.

One of the significant facts in the case was that the city did not have enough shelter spaces to house all of the homeless. San FranciscoРІР‚в„ў In 2006, a group of six homeless men successfully sued the city for РІР‚Сљcruel and unusual punishmentРІР‚Сњ because of that law. It prohibited sitting, lying or sleeping on the cityРІР‚в„ўs streets or sidewalks at any time of day. Р”Р„n example of a blatant anti-homeless sleeping law found not to be constitutional is a Los Angeles ordinance that was only recently modified.

In other words, since it only applied during the hours when the City needed to support business and reduce crime, the ordinance was rationally related to those legitimate government purposes. The court determined that the law did not invade that right because it only applied during business hours. They claimed that the ordinance violated due process because it was overbroad and limited their basic right to move around or be still. Two homeless advocates, one of whom was formerly homeless, sat on the sidewalk just so that they could get arrested and argue against the ordinance in court. Laws specifically against sleeping or resting outside, the third way of making it illegal to sleep in public, are also known as РІР‚Сљanti-homelessnessРІР‚Сњ laws.Р”Р„n example of one of these laws that was found to be constitutional was a Seattle, Washington ordinance against sitting on sidewalks during business hours. Courts have also pointed out that when the police take time to arrest and process people for curfew violations, they are not on the street pursuing and arresting with deviant criminals. These courts tend to note that since existing criminal laws are available for punishing crimes, imposing a curfew to reduce crime causes non-criminals to be punished for doing nothing wrong. Other courts find at least the age-based curfews to be un-Constitutional or unnecessary. Some courts find that curfews are perfectly legitimate as long as they include exceptions for actions like traveling from a job or participation in something of benefit to society. Р”В¬urfew laws have been contested enough over the years that cities now write them to avoid compromising Constitutional rights to assembly and travel. Curfews might apply only to juveniles or else to geographic locations such as entire parks or sections of them, neighborhoods, or whole cities.Р”Р„ third way of illegalizing sleeping in public is with laws specially written just for the purpose of preventing that activity. That means that it would be illegal to sleep in City Hall or the public library or another public building after operating hours.Р”Р„nother way the law can prohibit sleeping in public places is with a local curfew ordinance declaring that certain outdoor spaces are off-limits at particular times. ****Р”Р„ccording to the trespassing laws shown in the post about abandoned places, remaining in a public building after hours is a form of trespassing. These posts merely contain ideas to help you plan and organize your legal research and identify potentially helpful sources of law. **** The information written here is not legal advice and the author of this blog is not your lawyer.

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