Thursday, June 19, 2014

Desertrain v. City of Los Angeles (9th Cir. - June 19, 2014)

The City of Los Angeles prohibits people from living in their car on a public street.  You can live in your car on private property; for example, some churches allow homeless people to park their cars in the chuch parking lot and sleep there, as long as they're gone by a certain time.  But you can't live in your vehicle on a public street (or beach).

Plaintiffs sue, claiming that the statute is unconstitutionally vague since it does not specifically define what it means to use a vehicle "as a living quarters," and also contend that the statute is arbitrarily enforced in violation of the Due Process Clause.

The district court dismisses the lawsuit.  The case goes up to the Ninth Circuit.  And the panel is . . .

Judges Pregerson, Berzon and Christen.

You couldn't be more lucky if you were homeless.  Short of winning the lottery, anyway.

You can figure out what the Ninth Circuit does.

Sweet dreams, homeless-but-not-carless.