Homelessness Before the Supreme Court
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
The Supreme Court is soon expected to decide Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case where a town’s efforts to remove unhoused people from its parks became “cruel and unusual,” according to lower courts.
Guest: Dr. Bruce Murray, chief medical officer for the Mobile Integrative Navigation Team (MINT) in Josephine County, Oregon.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you've heard of Grants Pass, Oregon, I'm pretty sure I know why. |
| 0:11.0 | Tomorrow a very big day. |
| 0:12.6 | Oregon is going to be front and center at the US Supreme Court. |
| 0:16.2 | Earlier this year, lawyers for Grants Pass found themselves in front of the Supreme Court. |
| 0:21.6 | This morning, the Supreme Court is tackling |
| 0:23.4 | its biggest case on homelessness in more than 40 years |
| 0:26.8 | as cities and towns across the country |
| 0:28.9 | struggled to deal with more and more people living on the streets. |
| 0:32.4 | Grants Pass wanted to know just how hard they could crack down on homelessness. |
| 0:37.0 | The towns made up of just 40,000 people. |
| 0:41.0 | Hundreds of them are living in tents. |
| 0:44.0 | Grins Pass in southern Oregon bans camping in public places like parks and sidewalks. |
| 0:49.4 | Violators face a $295 fine |
| 0:52.5 | jail. |
| 0:53.5 | But with no public shelters in Grants Pass, a group of homeless residents |
| 0:57.6 | sued the city in federal court, arguing |
| 1:00.0 | that the law is unconstitutional because it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. |
| 1:07.0 | Just for a moment though, I want to tell you about a very different Grants Pass, the Grants Pass of Dr. Bruce Murray. |
| 1:18.0 | Bruce moved here decades ago. He says Grants Pass was the ideal place to raise his son. |
| 1:24.0 | It helps that Bruce is a fly fisherman, a self-described |
| 1:27.8 | drift boat guy. |
| 1:28.8 | We live on a beautiful piece of property five acres outside of town which is basically our |
... |
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