The Supreme Court recently issued rulings in two cases — Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council and Johnson v. Grants Pass — which will undermine our nation’s ability to govern for all and uphold the fundamental rights and dignity of unhoused people.
 

In Chevron, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, the long-standing 40-year precedent where courts provide deference to federal agency expertise in the interpretation of statutes.

Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority represents a dangerous power grab that takes policy decisions out of the hands of agency experts and into the hands of judges. Each and every day, government agencies implement a vast array of policies that protect Americans — such as ensuring the safety of food, drugs, drinking water, and more. The dismantling of the Chevron doctrine will undercut many of these regulations. With one ruling, the court undid our country’s long-standing approach to governing established by the separation of powers principle. And because of this ruling courts will have more authority to determine the availability of medications and ignore the expertise of the Food and Drug Administration. Judges will have more power to decide the acceptable levels of toxins in our drinking water and in the air we breathe.

This is the latest challenge to governing for all by the courts, and with this ruling the separation of power and the checks and balances promised in the Constitution continues a downward slide on an increasingly slippery slope.

While the majority opinion in Grants Pass emphasizes granting local governments wide latitude to address homelessness, it sets a dangerous and unconscionable precedent that disregards the fundamental rights and dignity of unhoused people, allowing for the criminal punishment of those who have no access to shelter for the mere act of sleeping in public to survive.

PolicyLink urges everyone to take action:

• Support the National Homelessness Law Center's call to the Biden administration and Congress to invest at least $356 billion in the next year, with continued funding in future years, to ensure that everybody has safe, decent housing that they can afford.
   
• Urge your elected officials to support real solutions to homelessness, not cruel and counterproductive measures like arrests and fines that exacerbate the problem. Use the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s advocacy toolkit to educate policymakers.

This decision is a setback, but it also galvanizes our resolve to fight for a future where housing is recognized and protected as a human right. We stand in solidarity with those who are unhoused, and we remain committed to advocating for policies that ensure all people have the security and dignity of a place to call home.