This issue is dedicated to our Spring 2025 Symposium on the Supreme Court case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, a landmark case with ramifications on California's housing crisis. Our contributors explore the criminalization of homelessness, the evolving interpretation of the Eighth Amendment, and the broader implications of Grants Pass on constitutional law and public policy. The Irrationality of Punishing Homelessness–Julie A. Nice: The Supreme Court upheld the criminalizati

Abstract : The Supreme Court upheld the criminalization of public survival by unhoused people in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson in June 2024. This article examines that decision and considers why Grants Pass had not enforced its camping ban against unhoused people when the author visited the city one year later. One important reason is that Oregon had enacted legislation requiring that any camping bans in the state be objectively reasonable considering the totality of circums

Abstract : The brief and ambiguous wording of the Eighth Amendment has permitted courts to adopt a variety of interpretations. These interpretations have been applied inconsistently through different periods of the Amendment’s history, but the U.S. Supreme Court has never established a singular, definitive method for interpreting the Amendment. That is, until the 2024 decision in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, where the Court rejects any interpretation of the Eighth