The Leadership Conference Joins an Amicus Brief in Grants Pass v. Johnson

View a PDF of the amicus brief here.

On April 3, 2024, The Leadership Conference joined an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The case, which will be heard by the Court on April 22, will consider whether ordinances that penalize sleeping in public, when applied to people experiencing homelessness and who have nowhere else to go, violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.” The brief argues that penalizing people for sleeping in public, when they have nowhere else to go, effectively punishes people for the status of being homeless, rather than any behavior. Instead of increasing the availability of affordable housing, the penalties simply make it harder for people to obtain shelter. The brief was authored by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.