WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities in California and the West may enforce laws restricting homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public property.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices disagreed with the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco and ruled that it is not "cruel and unusual" punishment for city officials to forbid homeless people from sleeping on the streets or in parks.

"Homelessness is complex," Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for the court. "Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it. At bottom, the question this case presents is whether the 8th Amendment grants federal judges primary responsibility for assessing those causes and devising those responses. It does not."

Gorsuch said the 8th Amendment "does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this nation's homelessness policy."

He was joined by the other conservative justices, while the three liberal justices dissented.

"Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in dissent. "For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is 'cruel and unusual' under the 8th Amendment."

The ruling is a significant victory for city officials in the West and a setback for homeless rights advocates. Since 2018, the advocates had won rulings from the 9th Circuit that held it was unconstitutional to enforce anti-camping laws against people who had no home and nowhere to sleep.

Many city officials said those rulings led to the growth of tent encampments in Los Angeles and most cities on the West Coast. They joined an Oregon city's appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to clarify their authority over public property.

Nothing in Friday's decision requires cities or their police to take stronger enforcement action against homeless people, but it will free some of them to do so.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed the decision: "Today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court provides state and local officials the definitive authority to implement and enforce policies to clear unsafe encampments from our streets. This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities."

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