The initial lawsuit was in a town with ~600 fewer available beds than residents. These people literally did not have anywhere else to go, and our highest court just said 'tough shit'.
I'm furious. I just read through as much as I could and asked GPT for a summary so I didn't miss anything. It's just about as bad as I thought.
The court is literally arguing that they're not criminalizing homelessness, they're just criminalizing 'sleeping in public' but makes no attempt to justify that with the fact that there literally aren't places to go. When Sotomayor tries to argue that cities should be responsible for providing adequate housing, they just hem and haw at 'What even IS adequate? We may never know. Plus, if we give them BEDS, they'll probably want something to keep them WARM too! That's just too much!'
That sounds like a significant challenge. One which if it ever gained enough traction to make it to the SC would be struck down setting a precedent to criminalize "mental illness" which would in turn be used as a precedent to criminalize more general ailments.
Potentially. If you know an attack is coming and use a blanket or pillow, yes.
It's only legal to sleep in public without any bedding and without a cache of personal objects nearby, because that "implies the intent to establish a temporary residence".