Newsom defends 'paralyzed' California officials in asking Supreme Court to intervene on homeless encampments

Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the Supreme Court to intervene, claiming California city leaders face an "unsurmountable roadblock" in clearing homeless encampments.

A ruling in Grants Pass, Oregon, invalidating a local anti-camping ordinance that would have barred people from sleeping on public property was recently upheld in the Ninth Circuit. The case expanded upon the prior case of Martin v. City of Boise, which prevented criminalizing people sleeping in public spaces if cities couldn't supply sufficient beds to accommodate them. Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace. 

"These courts have stretched Martin’s reasonable limit into an unsurmountable roadblock, preventing cities and towns from imposing commonsense time and place restrictions to keep streets safe and to move those experiencing homelessness into shelter," Newsom's amicus brief says. "California’s elected officials who seek in good faith to improve what often appears to be an intractable crisis have found themselves without options, forced to abandon efforts to make the spaces occupied by unhoused people safer."