When Is Sleeping a Crime? If You’re Homeless, Says the Supreme Court

In a defeat for advocates of the unhoused, the US Supreme Court has rejected the argument that it is cruel and unusual punishment to outlaw sleeping outdoors in urban spaces. The 6-3 decision broke down along ideological lines, with the conservatives refusing to apply the Eighth Amendment to prohibit cities from trying to keep homeless people from sleeping in the streets, and the liberals in dissent arguing that “sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime” and that outlawing it unconstitutionally criminalizes the status of being homeless.

The outcome is a reminder that if progressives ask this Supreme Court to create new rights for marginalized people, the effort is going to be more symbolic than practical. The current conservative majority is in the business of...