An Oregon judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking a rural city at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments from enforcing camping restrictions unless certain conditions are met.

Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah McGlaughlin ruled Friday that the city of Grants Pass must increase capacity at locations the city approved for camping and ensure the sites are physically accessible to people with disabilities.

If the city fails to meet those conditions, the judge’s order prohibits the city from citing, arresting or fining people for camping on public property. It also prevents the city from forcing people to leave campsites, from removing campsites that are not clearly abandoned or from prohibiting camping in most city parks.

The city may still enforce rules banning sleeping on sidewalks and streets or in alleys and doorways.

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Mayor Clint Scherf told The Associated Press he was “disheartened” by the judge’s order. The city’s information coordinator, Mike Zacchino, told the outlet that the city was “reviewing all aspects to ensure we make the best decision for our community.”

The lawsuit that ignited the case, filed by Disability Rights Oregon, argued that the city was discriminating against people with disabilities and violating a state law requiring cities’ camping regulations to be “objectively reasonable.” Five homeless people in Grants Pass were among the plaintiffs.

Grants Pass has struggled for years to handle the homelessness crisis and has become symbolic of the national debate over how to respond to the issue. Many of the city’s parks, in particular, saw encampments impacted by drug use and litter.

Fremont, California — another city seeking to deal with the homelessness crisis — passed one of the nation’s strictest anti-homeless encampment ordinances last month, banning camping on any public property and subjecting anyone “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” encampments to either a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail.

Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by the city that communities can ban sleeping outside and fine people who violate the ban, including when there are not enough shelter beds.

A volunteer holds on to a wheelchair as they help Max Hartfelt into his tent after relocating him from one park to another on Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Oregon. (AP)

The Supreme Court ruling overturned an appeals court decision that camping bans enforced when shelter space is insufficient amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Following the high court ruling, Grants Pass banned camping on all city property except sites designated by the City Council, which established two locations for the hundreds of homeless people in an effort to remove them from the parks.

After taking office this year, the new mayor and new council members moved to close the larger of the two sites, which housed roughly 120 tents, the lawsuit said. The smaller site’s hours of operation were also reduced to between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Both sites were often crowded, with poor conditions and inaccessible to people with disabilities because of loose gravel, according to the complaint.

“It is unconscionable to me to allow people to live there like that,” City Council member Indra Nicholas said before the vote to close the larger site.

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Vehicles drive down Rogue River Highway as light shines on the area on March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Oregon. (AP)

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After the lawsuit was filed, the city reopened a second, smaller site and extended the time people could remain at the location to four days.

McGlaughin’s order states that the city must increase capacity to what it was before the larger site was closed.

Tom Stenson, deputy legal director for Disability Rights Oregon, praised the ruling.

“This is not a radical solution. The court is basically saying, ‘Go back to the amount of space and places for people who are homeless that you had just three months ago,’” he told The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Oregon Ducks saw a ton of new players join the team earlier this month for the start of spring football, and when practice resumes next week following spring break, more players will be in attendance.

It appears that true freshman cornerback Brandon Finney Jr. is one of the players jumping in after the break. He missed the first two practices because of school scheduling. According to a photo on his Instagram Story, Finney is in Eugene and was working at the Moshofky Center over the weekend.

Finney is one of the top-ranked players in Oregon’s 2025 class, rated as the No. 40 overall player in the nation, and the No. 6 cornerback. Finney is the fourth-highest-rated player in the Ducks’ class, behind 5-star WR Dakorien Moore, 5-star CB Na’eem Offord, and 5-star S Trey McNutt. Standing at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Finney is a big-bodied CB who the Ducks hope can contribute early on in his Oregon tenure.

The cornerback room in Eugene is full of talent this year, but there are questions about who will step up and fill the starting spots. At the moment, Jahlil Florence is the only CB on the roster with starting experience for the Ducks. Still, guys like Theran Johnson, Ify Obidegwu, Rodrick Pleasant, Sione Laulea, and Dakoda Fields will all work to move up the depth chart. You also have incoming freshmen like Finney, Offord, and Brew, all of whom can work their way into the rotation starting this spring.

One of the other defensive backs that Oregon added this offseason is Ole Miss transfer Jadon Canady, who also arrived for spring football over the weekend. Canady played primarily in the STAR/nickel position with the Rebels in 2024, with 38 tackles, including 21 solo, and 11 passes defended. He was named to the All-SEC second team by the College Football Network.

According to social media, it also appears that 4-star running back Dierre Hill also showed up in Eugene over the weekend. Hill is rated as the No. 149 overall player in the class, and the No. 8 RB. He will join fellow 4-star RB Jordon Davison as the new guard in the backfield this year.

Two Oregon lawmakers are calling on major insurance companies to stop using their own internal wildfire risk maps to drop homeowners’ policies — at least until next year.

In a Friday press release, Sens. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, and Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, said they sent a joint letter to major insurance providers — including State Farm, All State and Liberty Mutual — calling them to pause this practice until January 2026.

“Constituents contact us with increasing frequency to say that they have been ‘dropped’ or not renewed by one of you,” the letter reads, calling it a “rigged system.”

Broadman and McLane asked the companies to respond to their demand by Monday. This comes ahead of a committee vote on a bill that would repeal the state’s own wildfire risk map. While insurance companies are prohibited from using the state’s map to make policy decisions, these companies have long used mapping data from other sources.

The problem with the companies’ internal maps, the two Central Oregon lawmakers say, is insurers’ reliance on mapping data instead of on-the-ground assessments. Broadman and McLane specifically call out insurance companies’ use of Verisk — a company that uses property data and aerial images taken by drones to help insurers determine wildfire risk.

Some states are considering limiting insurers’ use of drones to take aerial photos of people’s homes and use that information to make policy decisions.

Verisk executives appear to be aware of the risk of such limits on their business.

“To get ahead of what we consider to be an emerging issue, Verisk is actively working with the insurance trades to develop information to respond to growing regulatory and legislative concerns over the use of aerial imagery and analytics,” Verisk vice president of government affairs Nancy Crespo said in a video meant for insurers earlier this month.

Climate change is making wildfires, floods and hurricanes more frequent and severe, and that’s driving up insurance companies’ payouts. But in Oregon, insurers have consistently made money off homeowners this past decade, according to data compiled by the New York Times.

Oregon homeowners are also getting much less than what they pay for through insurance. In 2023, Oregon insurers paid out less than 52 cents for every dollar they collected in premiums, despite premiums increasing by nearly 11% the previous year — according to data compiled by the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit that advocates for consumers’ rights.