A lawsuit that began in Grants Pass in 2018 will be argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court next week, potentially paving the way for nationwide changes in the ways cities address certain elements of the homelessness crisis.
The Oregonian reports sitting at one of the counsel tables on Monday will be Ed Johnson, litigation director at The Oregon Law Center, a small legal nonprofit that filed the lawsuit against the City of Grants Pass six years ago.
The suit, brought on behalf of all unhoused individuals in Grants Pass, claimed that it was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment to cite and fine people for camping or sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go.
Johnson, whose professional mission is to achieve justice for low-income Oregonians, will sit at the counsel table to support the Washington DC-based attorney who will argue Grants Pass versus Johnson in front of the country's highest legal decision makers.
It will be Johnson's first time back at the Supreme Court since he interned there as an undergraduate in the summer of 1989, giving hourly courtroom lectures and tours. Johnson said he feels privileged to bring his clients' voices to the highest court.
In court documents, lawyers for Grants Pass have argued that the city is obligated to protect the health and safety of its residents and that the lower courts’ "decisions stand in the way of solutions to this complex problem and harm the very people they were intended to help" by allowing individuals to remain on the street.
But Johnson contends that without enough shelter and housing, the threat of criminalization won't push people to safer places.
