Oregon
U.S. Supreme Court sides with Oregon city, allows ban on homeless people sleeping outdoors • Maine Morning Star
The U.S. Supreme Court Friday sided with a local ordinance in Oregon that effectively bans homeless people from sleeping outdoors, and local governments will be allowed to enforce those laws.
In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion that the enforcement of those local laws that regulate camping on public property does not constitute the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” he wrote. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”
The case originated in Grants Pass, a city in Oregon that argues its ordinance is a solution to the city’s homelessness crisis, which includes fines and potential jail time for repeat offenders who camp or sleep outdoors.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent arguing that the ordinance targets the status of being homeless and is therefore a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“Grants Pass’s Ordinances criminalize being homeless,” she wrote. “The Ordinances’ purpose, text, and enforcement confirm that they target status, not conduct. For someone with no available shelter, the only way to comply with the Ordinances is to leave Grants Pass altogether.”
During oral arguments, the justices seemed split over ideological lines, with the conservative justices siding with the town in Oregon, arguing that policies and ordinances around homelessness are complex, and should be left up to local elected representatives rather than the courts.
The liberal justices criticized the city’s argument that homelessness is not a status protected under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The liberal justices argued the Grants Pass ordinance criminalized the status of being homeless.
The Biden administration took the middle ground in the case, and U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler offered partial support.
“It’s the municipality’s determination, certainly in the first instance with a great deal of flexibility, how to address the question of homelessness,” he said during oral arguments in late April.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) – Guard and former Oregon Ducks player Holly Winterburn has been signed to a developmental contract with the Portland Fire, the team announced Wednesday.
Winterburn played at the University of Oregon during the 2019-20 season. The native of Northampton, England, then went back to Europe where she last played for Athinaikos in the Greek Women’s Basketball League.
Winterburn, who went undrafted in the 2026 WNBA draft, was signed by the Atlanta Dream before being waived on prior to the season.
The Fire won their first game of the season on Tuesday, beating the New York Liberty 98-96.
The Fire face the Liberty again at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Moda Center. Get tickets to the game here.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Talk about a bummer.
Oregon Ducks greats Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally are sidelined for the Liberty’s only trip to Portland this season.
Ionescu and Sabally didn’t play in the Liberty’s 98-96 loss to the Fire on Tuesday night and will not play in Thursday’s rematch.
Ionescu injured her left foot in the Liberty’s preseason finale May 3 and won’t be reevaluated until early next week. Though she won’t suit up, Ionescu did make the trip to Portland.
Meanwhile, Sabally has yet to make her Liberty debut after missing the team’s two preseason games for reconditioning purposes before being sidelined with a cyst. Sabally is considered day to day, coach Chris DeMarco previously said, but she didn’t join the team on its trip to Portland.
Ionescu had been campaigning for the WNBA to bring a team to Portland for quite some time and was ecstatic when the City of Roses was granted an expansion team in September 2024.
The Fire became the WNBA’s 15th franchise and joined the Toronto Tempo in embarking on their inaugural seasons this summer.
Though Fire fans hoped Ionescu would return to Oregon like a prodigal daughter, the No. 1 overall pick in 2020 made a long-term commitment to the Liberty this offseason, signing a three-year deal that keeps her in New York through the 2028 season.
Sabally, who played alongside Ionescu at Oregon for three seasons, is signed through next season.
Ionescu did relish a homecoming a year ago when the Liberty played a preseason game at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
But a chance to play a meaningful WNBA game in Oregon will likely have to wait another year. That would change only if the Fire were to make the playoffs in their first year, but that’s a long shot. Portland has the worst odds to make the postseason, per BetMGM.
Rebecca Allen participated in the Liberty’s shootaround Tuesday morning at Moda Center, but her season debut remains on hold as she deals with soreness in her left leg.
Allen missed both of the Liberty’s preseason games for reconditioning purposes.
Soreness in her leg flared up ahead of Thursday’s season opener.
She told reporters she thought she’d be ready by Sunday’s game at Washington, but that didn’t happen.
UMATILLA, Ore. (KATU) — The Oregon Department of Corrections reports that an inmate at Two Rivers Correctional Institution has died.
READ MORE | Multiple Urban Alchemy employees terminated after recent arrests in Portland
Officials say Virgil McDougal, 83, died May 11.
“As with all in-custody deaths, the Oregon State Police have been notified,” the agency said.
McDougal was convicted of several sexual abuse crimes in Marion County in 2011 and began serving his sentence in July of that year.
His earliest release date was March 2028.
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