Authors

• Sara K. Rankin, Seattle University School of Law

Setting the Stage for Grants Pass (& a Moral Constitutional Reckoning)

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson marked a seismic shift in the legal landscape governing homelessness throughout the country. By permitting the criminalization of involuntary acts, such as sleeping or resting in public when no shelter is available, the Court foreclosed constitutional protections under the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause and signaled judicial deference to punitive local policies targeting unhoused people. But Grants Pass was not spontaneous; it was seeded over time. This Article situates Grants Pass within the broader legal and nonlegal contexts that made its outcome possible. Part I explores how converging national crises, such as chronic housing shortages, systemic failures in health care and mental health systems, escalating climate crises, and the legacy of mass incarceration fuel contemporary homelessness and normalize its criminalization. Part II traces Grants Pass’s doctrinal lineage, analyzing how Robinson v. California, Powell v. Texas, and Martin v. City of Boise shaped status-based punishment and Eighth Amendment protections. By grounding Grants Pass in these intersecting forces, this Article suggests a critical foundation for understanding the legal, moral, and societal implications of the Court’s retreat from protecting some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Repository Citation

Sara K. Rankin, Setting the Stage for Grants Pass (& a Moral Constitutional Reckoning), 67 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1125 (2026), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol67/iss4/7