Three homeless men in Boulder are challenging the constitutionality of the city’s anti-camping ordinance, claiming it violates their Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
David Madison, Mark Wray Sr. and Donald Jackson each received a municipal ticket for camping within city limits without a permit.
Boulder’s code makes it a municipal offense to sleep overnight in public places, including parks or under bridges, without written permission from the city manager. The tickets carry a $100 fine, but most indigent people who can’t afford to pay must perform up to 12 hours of community service.
Madison, Wray and Jackson are each fighting their tickets in Boulder Municipal Court, where Associate Judge Jeff H. Cahn has already ruled against a motion to dismiss Madison’s case on the basis that criminalizing sleep is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment.
In his order, Cahn wrote that a person who violates the camping ordinance “may lack the ‘moral’ culpability that we often expect when criminal sanctions are imposed,” but it’s not the court’s place to determine what type of behavior should be subjected to criminal sanctions.
“That is the province of the community and Boulder’s City Council,” Cahn wrote.
Boulder’s city attorney contends the anti-camping ordinance promotes “sanitation, public health and safety, encourages patronage of local businesses, and protects public areas from environmental damage.”
Cahn agreed with the city.
“Accordingly, this court must uphold the ordinance as a constitutionally permissible restriction on the use of public property,” Cahn wrote.
The ruling means the homeless men will take their respective cases to separate trials in early April.
