A 2022 lawsuit challenging Boulder’s camping ban was dismissed Dec. 6 by a Boulder County judge, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The lawsuit, filed against the city by the ACLU on behalf of the nonprofit Feet Forward and several unhoused individuals, claimed that Boulder’s ban amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under state and federal law.
“Plaintiffs have advanced plausible arguments that the Blanket Ban may not be the best public policy response,” Judge Robert R. Gunning wrote in the order. “Reasonable people will disagree over which policy responses are most effective in addressing this complex issue. The wisdom of the Blanket Ban is not before the Court, however.”
Boulder’s ordinance is often referred to as the blanket ban because it prohibits “any cover or protection from the elements other than clothing.”
In the order, Gunning cited the Supreme Court’s June ruling on Johnson v. Grants Pass, which upheld the constitutionality of the Oregon town’s practice of ticketing people for sleeping outside even if there are no shelter beds available.
“The Court concluded that the punishments attached to the Grants Pass ordinances increasing fines and up to 30 days in jail were not cruel or unusual because they were not designed to ‘superadd terror, pain, or disgrace,’ and are typical of other punishments for similar offenses,” Gunning wrote in the order.
Plaintiffs argued that despite the Grants Pass ruling, Colorado’s Constitution offered broader protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but the judge ultimately disagreed.
Violations of Boulder’s blanket ban are punishable by fines of up to $2,650 per violation and up to 90 days in jail, according to the order.