On Monday (April 22), the Supreme Court of the United States will hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass -- in which a lower court decided that it is cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize people for sleeping outside with blankets and pillows -- particularly when there is absolutely nowhere else for them to go. Now this decision could be overturned, rolling back years of related cases that granted some basic rights and protections for people living outside.

This will be the most significant ruling in decades about the rights of homeless people in the United States -- as the housing crisis rises to unprecedented levels across the nation, against a backdrop of skyrocketing rents, erosion of already-weak tenant rights and protections, and a housing market that is increasingly owned and controlled by giant shadowy corporations -- often the very same corporations that spend untold millions fighting the very policies that would lower housing costs, create more public housing, protect renters, and keep people in their homes.

What kind of court would allow fictional entities like corporations to have an "inalienable right" to harm individuals and communities and evade accountability -- while the actual real, living human beings it is allegedly meant to protect can be arrested or fined for simply existing, or using a blanket to stay warm?

If corporations are people, then they do not seem to have evolved beyond the "object permanence" stage of human development -- where we learn that even if we can't see something or someone, they still exist.

Human beings don't disappear, no matter how much you move them, arrest them, or steal their survival gear.

And you can bet that corporations (and their corrupt non-profit counterparts) were part of a well-funded and coordinated campaign across the United States to push for this case to be brought to the highest court, and then knocked down -- in hopes of removing what few legal barriers remain to their ghoulish and ineffective policies of displacement, criminalization and internment.

WHAT CAN I DO?

JOIN AN ACTION: If you live in or near the following cities (San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Sacramento, CA; Portland, OR; Denver, CO; Missoula, MT; or Washington, D.C.) you can join a local action on Monday! See the Western Regional Advocacy Project's list of actions here.

GET INVOLVED IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY: Find a local mutual aid outfit to donate or volunteer with. Learn the policies in your own town or city, and show up to city council meetings when they try to pass ordinances to further criminalize your unhoused neighbors. Get to know your unhoused neighbors, learn what they go through every day -- if you have any encampments near you, bring some water or food and let them know you have their back.

STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, DOWN WITH CORPORATE RIGHTS: Call your Representative and Senators and tell them to support (or thank them for supporting) HJR54, the #WeThePeopleAmendment -- because as long as corporations have constitutional rights, our rights as human beings will continue to be trampled in the interest of someone else's bottom line. CLICK HERE TO CONTACT YOUR REP TODAY!

In solidarity,

- Move to Amend National Team   

Alfonso, Jennie, Tara, Ambrosia, Shelly, George, Daniel, Margaret, Michael, Jessica, Katie, Keyan, Greg, Kelsey, Cole, & Jason