This week, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upheld an injunction that bars the City of Los Angeles and LAPD from seizing the property of Skid Row Residents.
Here is an excerpt from the ruling:
This appeal does not concern the power of the federal
courts to constrain municipal governments from addressing
the deep and pressing problem of mass homelessness or to
otherwise fulfill their obligations to maintain public health
and safety. In fact, this court would urge Los Angeles to do
more to resolve that problem and to fulfill that obligation. Nor
does this appeal concern any purported right to use public
sidewalks as personal storage facilities. The City has instead
asked us to declare that the unattended property of homeless
persons is uniquely beyond the reach of the Constitution, so
that the government may seize and destroy with impunity the
worldly possessions of a vulnerable group in our society.
Because even the most basic reading of our Constitution prohibits
such a result, the City’s appeal is DENIED.
Media coverage of the ruling:
