BOISE — The City of Boise Monday filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court beginning the process of asking the court to hear the city’s appeal of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ rulings on the case Martin v. Boise.
The suit alleges the city’s ordinances that regulate camping and “disorderly conduct” violate the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“(Our) filing asks the court to extend the deadline for filing the city’s writ of certiorari, which would begin the review of the case and the process for determining if the court will ultimately take it up,” said Boise City spokesman Mike Journee.
If approved, the deadline will be extended to August 29. From there, final notification about whether the court would hear the case should not be expected until October.
“We are bringing this case forward because we must have tools to respond to the public health and safety dilemmas created by encampments,” said Boise Mayor Dave Bieter. “By working with partners to provide forward-thinking services to those experiencing homelessness –- like Housing First facilities and support of our non-profit emergency shelters –- we believe Boise is approaching this issue with thoughtful compassion. If the 9th Circuit’s rulings are allowed to stand, then no city in the country will have the tools it needs to prevent a humanitarian crisis on its own streets.”
Theane Evangelis, a partner with the Los Angeles-based law firm Gibson Dunn, will lead the team representing the city before the U.S. Supreme Court. She said that the 9th Circuit’s previous rulings conflict with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and other circuit court rulings -- and will tie the hands of local governments in their efforts to devise solutions to the complex problem of homelessness.
“The tragedy is that this decision harms the very people it purports to protect,” Evangelis said. “If local governments cannot limit public camping, they will be unable to stop the proliferation of dangerous encampments that trap the most vulnerable individuals and prevent them from seeking proper shelter and services. We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court.”
Journee said the city’s camping and disorderly conduct ordinances remain in effect until further clarification can be obtained from the courts; the previous rulings have not caused the city to change its procedures.
Since 2014, the City of Boise’s policy has been to suspend ticketing for camping in the city when there is no room in local homeless shelters. In 2018, a total of thirty citations for camping were written in Boise. In all of 2017, only six citations were written.
In the meantime, the City of Boise continues to work with its community partners to create badly-0needed resources for the 120-140 chronically homeless in our community. “New Path Community Housing, Idaho’s first Housing First project, opened in the fall -- with room for forty chronically homeless families and individuals. A similar project for the benefit of veterans experiencing homelessness veterans will also be a reality in the coming months,” Journee said.
