The actress Taraji P. Henson, who hosted last night’s annual BET Awards, used her platform to transform what had been marketed as a “celebration of Black culture and artistic accomplishments” into an openly political campaign event for President Biden’s reelection. One of Henson’s antics included an awkward interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, in which the two lamented Republican “extremists” and Harris warned listeners of “the full-on attack on our fundamental freedoms: the freedom to vote, the freedom to love who you love, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom for a woman to make decisions about her own body.”
But perhaps the most embarrassing moment during the show was Henson’s hyperpartisan monologue, in which she launched a meandering and fearmongering attack on Republicans while instructing viewers that it is “time for us to play chess, not checkers.” One of the wildest claims Henson made in her speech was that “it is now a crime to be homeless,” seemingly referring to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Johnson v. Grants Pass. “Pay attention, it’s not a secret, look it up,” Henson declared. “They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens.”
In fact, the Supreme Court did not make it a “crime to be homeless.” In Johnson, the Court held that it is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for local governments to simply enforce laws against sleeping or camping in public places. Justice Neil Gorsuch correctly noted in the majority opinion that neither the Court’s ruling nor the law it was reviewing criminalize the “mere status” of being homeless. As Gorsuch observed:
Rather than criminalize mere status, Grants Pass forbids actions like ‘occupy[ing] a campsite’ on public property ‘for the purpose of maintaining a temporary place to live.’ Under the city’s laws, it makes no difference whether the charged defendant is homeless, a backpacker on vacation passing through town, or a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building.
The Supreme Court’s ruling received support from a wide swath of prominent Democratic politicians, particularly on the West Coast, where progressive-dominated cities have been attempting to deal with outdoor public encampments that have become havens for drug use and criminal activity. California governor Gavin Newsom, for example, praised the decision as “remov[ing] the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and wellbeing of our communities.” San Francisco mayor London Breed noted that the ruling “will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently.” Aaron Peskin, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, wrote that the Court’s decision “will give law enforcement additional tools, especially when encampments are primarily focused on the selling and using of fentanyl.” Portland mayor Ted Wheeler declared that the Supreme Court “laid the federal constitutional issue to rest” and that enforcement of Portland’s anti-encampment statute would begin as scheduled.
The Johnson v. Grants Pass decision was not a Republican ruling or a victory for political extremism, and it certainly did not make it a crime to be homeless. Henson should check with some of the elected Democrats who actually have to deal with this issue, since they don’t seem to be in alignment with her.