How will each Supreme Court justice vote in the the Grants Pass appeal?
7
82
885
Jul 1
78%
John Roberts
30%
Elena Kagan
78%
Clarance Thomas
54%
Amy Coney-Barrett
55%
Brett Kavanaugh
64%
Neil Gorsuch
25%
Sonya Sotomayor
25%
Ketanji Brown-Jackson
79%
Samuel Alito

Resolves to percentage:

  • low % means more sympathy for homeless rights, civic responsibility, humanitarianism

  • high % means more sympathy for local municipalities right to regulate

  • NA if there is really no way to say

This will be subjective (so I won’t bet) but empirical (based on the precise wording of comments from the justices or sections of the opinions they authored)… so please weigh in!

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Argument transcript.

From the Washington Post:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked the Biden administration’s lawyer: “Why would you think these nine people are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?”

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh also expressed concern about federal courts “micromanaging homeless policy.”

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The justices said they were struggling with how to draw the line between status and conduct and what it would mean to expand Eighth Amendment protections.

Roberts tried to make a distinction between a person who is addicted to drugs, which he suggested is an ongoing status, and a person who is homeless and might move in and out of homelessness over time.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch asked whether constitutional protections for unhoused individuals with nowhere to sleep would then have to extend to cooking or making a fire outdoors since eating, like sleeping, is “a human necessity every person has to do.” Would the Eighth Amendment prohibit punishment for stealing food, he asked.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said similar questions could be asked about trespassing and squatting, and of urinating or defecating in public.

Boosting / adding liquidity since this takes work…

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