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Friend,
On a day off from the crush of representing her constituents, you might find Florida state Sen. Rosalind Osgood on a park bench in the sun, her eyes closed.
Or you might come across attorney David Peery, a graduate of Howard University and George Washington University Law School, enjoying a Sunday nap on a grassy esplanade in Miami, where he lives.
It is almost certain that neither would elicit a second glance from the police. Sleeping in a park is, after all, not a crime.
Or is it?
If you are experiencing homelessness, the U.S. Supreme Court could rule in a case it will hear on April 22 that you can be cited or arrested for the simplest of human functions – falling asleep.
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson , the court will ultimately decide whether a city’s enforcement of public camping laws against unhoused people violates the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has, along with other social justice organizations, filed an amicus “friend-of-the-court” brief to support the claims of the plaintiffs experiencing homelessness that such laws are unlawful status crimes. The SPLC filed the amicus brief on behalf of itself and other nonprofit poverty law organizations in Florida that work on issues of housing and homelessness: Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Justice Institute, Florida Legal Services, Community Justice Project, Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County and the Florida Housing Umbrella Group. SPLC advocates will also participate in a rally outside the courthouse on April 22 in support of rights for unhoused people.
“Instead of fixing the system from the policy level, what our governments are doing at the state and local levels is blaming people because they cannot afford housing and making their very existence a crime,” said Kirsten Anderson, deputy legal director for the SPLC’s Economic Justice litigation team.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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