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A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 23 april 2024
With homelessness on the rise, the Supreme Court weighs bans on

sleeping outdoors

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST people in the jurisdiction?”
and CLAIRE RUSH he said.
Associated Press Other conservative jus-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The tices asked how far Eighth
Supreme Court wrestled Amendment legal protec-
with major questions about tions should extend as cit-
the growing issue of home- ies struggle with managing
lessness on Monday as it homeless encampments
considered whether cit- that can be dangerous
ies can punish people for and unsanitary.
sleeping outside when shel- “How about if there are
ter space is lacking. no public bathroom fa-
It’s the most significant cilities, do people have an
case before the high court Eighth Amendment right to
in decades on the issue, defecate and urinate out-
and comes as record num- doors?” said Justice Neil
bers of people are without Gorsuch.
a permanent place to live Other public-health laws
in the United States. cover that situation, Jus-
The case started in the ru- tice Department attorney
ral Oregon town of Grants Edwin Kneedler said. He
Pass, which began fining argued people shouldn’t
people $295 for sleeping be punished just for sleep-
outside as the cost of hous- Activists demonstrate at the Supreme Court as the justices consider a challenge to rulings that found ing outside, but said the rul-
ing escalated and tents punishing people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to unconstitutional ing striking down the Grants
sprung up in the city’s pub- cruel and unusual punishment, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 22, 2024. Pass law should be tossed
lic parks. The San Francisco- Associated Press out because the court
based U.S. 9th Circuit Court didn’t do enough to deter-
of Appeals struck down the showed the stark terms of there’s no space in shelters, not sleeping?” she said. mine if people are “involun-
law under its holding that the debate over homeless- Justice Sonia Sotomayor Solving homelessness is tarily homeless.”
banning camping in plac- ness in Western states like said. a complicated question, Gorsuch and other justices
es without enough shelter California, which is home to “Where do we put them if said Justice Brett Kavana- also raised the possibil-
beds amounts to cruel and one-third of the country’s every city, every village, ev- ugh, who raised questions ity that other aspects of
unusual punishment. homeless population. ery town lacks compassion about both the role of fed- state or federal law could
The justices appeared to Sleeping is a biological ne- and passes a law identical eral courts and of camping help sort through the issue,
be leaning toward a nar- cessity, and people may to this? Where are they sup- bans. “How does it help if potentially without set-
row ruling in the case after be forced to do it outside posed to sleep? Are they there are not enough beds ting sweeping new legal
hearing arguments that if they can’t get housing or supposed to kill themselves, for the number of homeless precedent.q

West Virginia confirms first measles

case since 2009

The Monongalia County serious complications. cago.
Health Department said Dr. Brian H. Huggins, the The U.S. Centers for Disease
WVU Medicine alerted of- county health depart- Control and Prevention
ficials Sunday that an adult ment’s incoming health of- documented 113 cases as
patient living in the county ficer, said the department of April 5. There have been
tested positive for the viral is working with the hospi- seven outbreaks and most
infection. Health officials tal to identify people who U.S. cases 73% are linked
have not pinpointed exact- came into contact with the to those flare-ups.
ly where and how the pa- patient. Still, the count is lower than
tient was exposed but said “We really want to empha- some recent years: 2014
the person had recently size that this is an illness that saw 667 cases and 2019
traveled abroad. people should take very se- had 1,274.
The patient who was par- riously,” Huggins said. Most U.S. cases are brought
tially vaccinated against Nationwide, measles cases into the country by people
measles, having received this year already are nearly who traveled where mea-
one of two doses had de- double the total for all of sles is far more common.
veloped symptoms, sought 2023, raising health experts’ Huggins said West Virginia
This undated image made available by the Centers for Disease medical treatment through concerns about the pre- has not seen a case since
Control and Prevention on Feb. 4, 2015, shows an electron the WVU Medicine system ventable, once-common 2009 largely due to its strict
microscope image of a measles virus particle, center. and was instructed to stay childhood virus. Health school vaccination laws.
Associated Press home while awaiting lab officials have confirmed West Virginia is one of a
By LEAH WILLINGHAM confirmed the first known results. measles cases in at least 17 handful of states that allows
Associated Press case of measles in the state One of the world’s most other states so far this year, only medical exemptions
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — since 2009, health officials contagious diseases, mea- including cases in New York to vaccine requirements.q
A West Virginia hospital has said Monday. sles can lead to potentially City, Philadelphia and Chi-