ACLU Sues Spokane Over Anti-Public Camping Ordinances After US Supreme Court Ruling

Homeless people living out of their vehicle in Westchester, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in Washington state court against the city of Spokane, Washington, on Aug. 1, claiming that local anti-public camping ordinances unfairly punish homeless people for being homeless.

Spokane, located in the eastern part of the state, had a total population of about 230,000 in 2022, according to U.S. Census data.

The city was home to almost 2,400 homeless people in 2023, 36 percent more than the year before, according to court papers.

Laws forbidding camping, sitting, and lying down “functionally criminalize homelessness,” the ACLU said in a statement.

“When people have nowhere else to rest, camping and resting outside cannot be seen as voluntary. Arresting or fining people for sleeping in public spaces only worsens our ongoing mass incarceration crisis and diverts much-needed resources from addressing the root causes of homelessness,” the organization stated. “Because homelessness is not a voluntary or willful act, criminalizing homelessness is cruel and therefore unconstitutional.”

The suit was lodged after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge in late June to an Oregon city’s anti-public camping ordinance, dismissing arguments that the law violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.” That case was City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.

The Spokane laws violate the Washington Constitution by imposing “cruel punishment” on the homeless, the ACLU alleges. Article I, section 14 of that state constitution reads, “Excessive bail shall not be required, excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishment inflicted.”

The lead plaintiff is Donnell Currie, a formerly homeless Spokane resident who had been living in her vehicle with her son. She was cited for unlawful camping in September 2023 after “residing” in a location for “only ten minutes after she had parked her vehicle,” according to the legal complaint filed in Spokane Superior Court.

“She reports being routinely woken up by police in the middle of the night and driving around in the hopes of avoiding police patrols aimed at enforcing the unlawful camping law. As a result, during the estimated year in which Donnell experienced homelessness in Spokane, she barely slept,” the complaint states.

Currie was charged under the first ordinance, which makes it a misdemeanor to “camp in or upon any public property” including within 1,000 feet of a park, child care facility, or a school.

Spokane’s city council voted in April 2023 not to immediately make the measure law, instead deciding to allow it to be voted on by city residents.

At the time, Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle said the measure was needed because “this is where families are congregating, this is where kids are congregating, and it makes a ton of sense for the health and safety of the city to put this forward.”

The ordinance was included in a ballot measure known as Proposition 1 that expanded the locations in the city where camping was banned. Spokane voters approved the measure 74.7 percent to 25.3 percent in November 2023. It took effect the same month.

Local attorney Brian Hansen, who spearheaded the campaign to approve the measure, previously said it was needed to protect children.

Separately, Proposition 1 is being challenged in the state’s highest court.

Weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Washington Supreme Court agreed on June 4 to hear Jewels Helping Hands v. Hansen, which seeks to strike down Proposition 1. Those opposing the proposition say it went outside the scope of what a local ballot measure is legally allowed to accomplish.

The ACLU lawsuit also challenges a second ordinance, which makes it a misdemeanor to sit or lie in a designated zone on public property within the city. It was passed by the city council and took effect in October 2022.

In addition, the lawsuit seeks to invalidate a third ordinance, which allows the city to remove, destroy, or store the property of people cited under the first ordinance.

This leads to “the loss of sleeping bags, tarps, beddings, tents, and other vital personal property that individuals use to survive while living on the street ... [which] threatens the ability of [Spokane’s] unhoused residents to survive,” according to the complaint.

The city council approved the third ordinance, and it became effective in October 2022.

The ACLU argues that the third ordinance runs afoul of Article I, section 3 of the state constitution, which states, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Currie “objects to the use of taxpayer funds to implement” the ordinances, which “unconstitutionally criminalize homelessness,” according to the complaint.

Before filing suit, lawyers for Currie and her co-plaintiffs asked the office of Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to sue the city to strike down the ordinances.

On July 29, Washington state Deputy Solicitor General Alicia O. Young said in a letter that the office would refrain from doing so “without expressing any view as to whether your claims may have potential merit,” according to the complaint.

La Rond Baker, legal director for the ACLU of Washington, said Spokane’s anti-public camping laws single out homeless people for legal penalties.

“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness and poverty,” she said in a statement.

“Fines and incarceration only further entrench homelessness and separate people from essential support systems. If our state’s constitutional prohibition on cruel punishment means anything ... it means that our poorest neighbors, those who lack a home, those who live and sleep outdoors ... cannot be punished for being unhoused.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Spokane City Attorney Mike Piccolo and Ferguson’s office for comment but did not receive any replies by publication time.