The United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, recently issued a ruling that will increase the city of Santa Clarita’s authority to enforce public camping ordinances that dictate where homeless people can camp and sleep.

Grants Pass v. Johnson was a Ninth Circuit case that reached the Supreme Court in April and was decided on June 28 in favor of the city of Grants Pass, Ore.

The court found the Grants Pass ordinance that made it illegal to camp on public property was not unconstitutional.

The majority opinion relied on information provided by multiple amici cities, counties and law enforcement agencies.

The court cited various amicus briefs for factual information about the homeless and the challenges in addressing homelessness, specifically, the court cited information from the amici cities of: Chino, Fillmore, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Glendora, Huntington Beach, Murrieta, Newport Beach, Orange, Roseville, Santa Ana, Santa Clarita, San Clemente and the County of Orange among others.

The Supreme Court upheld camping regulations adopted by the city of Grants Pass, ruling those regulations do not violate the “cruel and unusual” clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan dissented the decision that effectively ended more than five years of legal protections for people sleeping outside in states such as California.

Those protections were established by the 2019 Ninth Circuit court ruling in the Martin v. Boise case. The Martin v. Boise case held that enforcing public-camping ordinances against homeless individuals without adequate shelter beds violates the Eighth Amendment.