Attorney General Knudsen Leads Coalition Calling on Supreme Court to Reverse Restrictions on Homeless Camp Bans

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief Friday in the case of Johnson v. City of Grants Pass which asks the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision prohibiting states and local governments from enforcing laws that prevent public spaces from becoming homeless encampments.

In 2018, the Ninth Circuit wrongly found in Martin v. City of Boise that the Eighth Amendment provided the right to "sleep, camp, and defecate in public spaces." Then in 2023, the court went even further to hold that the Eighth Amendment preve...