City Council Decides Not To Appeal Ruling on Camping Ban

A city council group in Fort Collins, Colorado, recently decided against appealing a court ruling that was related to a case involving a camping ban in the city region.

The police in that area had previously ticketed a man who had been sleeping in his car at arest stop several years ago.

The court had found that the police unconstitutionally ticketed the man and the ACLU eventually stepped in and helped the man to appeal that ticket.

Now, the Fort Collins city council has decided that they are not going to pursue an appeal that stems from that case, where the situation was found to be unconstitutional.

The vote was split, 4-3 to not go forward with the appeal over the ruling that came in favor of the man who had been sleeping in his car.

A number of council members allegedly stated that they didn't think the court should be weighing in on this question of involuntary vs voluntary homelessness, as that issue came up in this case on whether or not he was voluntarily choosing to sleep in his car.

Future cases that involve enforcement of the camping ban in Colorado might also have to determine the same question in court later on, to look at the difference between involuntary and voluntary homelessness. They might need further discourse on that differentiation later on because whether or not the act was involuntary and unavoidable could go on to justify or not justify state intrusion into the matter.

At least for now they aren't going to be wasting any more resources over this issue.

Pics:
pixabay