Professor Reynoso Comments on ACLU Homelessness Suit for La Opinion
Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso commented for the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion on a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the City of Santa Monica on behalf of homeless residents. The suit alleges that the city is violating the constitutional rights of chronically homeless people by arresting and harassing them for sleeping in public places even though the city lacks sufficient shelter space for them to sleep in.
"The Constitution guarantees the right of people to express themselves on the street, but not to sleep," Professor Reynoso said, also noting that, paradoxically, one could deliver a speech or walk with a placard in any public place, but not sleep in it. "Sleeping under a bridge is legally an intrusion," Reynoso said, while stressing that criminalizing homelessness is just one more indication that the country has not faced the issue in a comprehensive way.
A member of the UC Davis School of Law faculty since 2001, Professor Reynoso is an internationally known civil rights leader, the first Latino to sit on the California Supreme Court, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He has been awarded the UC Davis Medal, the university's highest honor, and the Law School has established the Cruz & Jeannene Reynoso Scholarship for Legal Access to help students with financial needs.