Missouri Supreme Court strikes down law banning homeless from sleeping on state land

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a 2022 law that banned people from sleeping on state-owned land and worried advocates that it would criminalize people experiencing homelessness.

The state’s high court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the law violated the state constitutional requirement that bills relate to a single subject, overturning a lower court’s ruling that upheld the law. The provision banning sleeping on state land was included in a sweeping bill that included a range of different policies, including county coroners, building codes and tax exemptions on World Cup tickets.

“It takes an extraordinary showing to convince this Court to engage in judicial surgery to save a bill infected with the otherwise fatal constitutional disease of multiple subjects,” Judge Paul C. Wilson wrote in the order.

Tuesday’s ruling repeals the controversial state law on procedural grounds, but the court did not rule on whether the policy would be constitutional on its own. It could prompt lawmakers to consider similar legislation during the next legislative session, which begins next month.

After Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the law in 2022, Kansas City leaders working to address homelessness worried that the law would criminalize some of the estimated 2,000 people living without housing in Kansas City and cut funding from programs working to remedy it.

The law put homeless individuals at risk of facing a class C misdemeanor for sleeping on state land after receiving a warning. The legislation also allowed the state attorney general, currently held by Republican Andrew Bailey, to sue local governments that don’t enforce the ban.

Advocates said the legislation forced people experiencing homelessness into more secluded corners of cities and wooded areas, making it hard for outreach workers to find them.

Across the border in Kansas, lawmakers this year considered legislation that went a step further than Missouri and also banned camping on local lands in addition to state land.

Tuesday’s order rules in favor of a lawsuit brought by The Gathering Tree, a Springfield homeless shelter, along with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and Public Citizen Litigation Group. The groups argued that the provision related to homelessness violated the state constitution’s single subject clause.

Advocacy groups, including The Missouri Budget Project, The National Homelessness Law Center, Greater Kansas City Coalition to Homelessness and Empower Missouri filed briefs in support of the challenge.