The Constitutional Right to be a Bum

Jack Dunphy (who is actually an LAPD officer writing under a pseudonym) has a piece at National Review Online regarding the latest ridiculous ruling by the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals - the most overruled court in the land - and surely the next ruling to be added to the list of those struck down by the Supremes.

The continuing madcap antics of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Suppose your work required you to spend a few days in downtown Los Angeles. If you had business to conduct, say, with the city government, you might choose to stay at the very posh New Otani Hotel, at the corner of First and Los Angeles Streets. Just west of the hotel is the civic center, including City Hall and the various county courthouses. Beyond the courthouses you'll find the cultural heart of the city, with the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall looking across First Street toward the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Ahmanson Theater. East of the hotel are the restaurants and nightlife of Little Tokyo. And just across First Street from the New Otani is Parker Center, the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department so familiar to viewers of Dragnet. Los Angeles can hardly rival New York or Chicago for architectural grandeur, certainly, but if you were to confine your sightseeing to these areas you would surely go home with a favorable enough impression of the city.

But if you were to exit the lobby of the New Otani and head south, even for only a block or so, you would experience a different Los Angeles altogether, for if you cross Third Street, especially at night, you will have crossed the River Styx to find yourself immersed in an underworld far beyond your worst imaginings. The sidewalks will be barely if at all passable, for as night descends on the city they are claimed by the homeless — known to those who eschew politically correct euphemisms as "bums" — who erect camping tents and all manner of makeshift dwellings in which to spend the night. But before falling asleep in their tents and their "cardboard condos," these men (and a few women) will pass their time drinking, smoking crack, shooting heroin, fighting with (and occasionally murdering) each other, and preying on those decent citizens imprudent enough to wander through.

If you were mistakenly to venture into this frothing maelstrom of depravity and somehow escape unharmed, you might walk over to Parker Center and approach the impassive police officer behind the counter in the lobby. "Listen here," you might say, "what are the police doing about all those besotted bums down the street?" You will find the answer horrifying but somehow unsurprising. "There's not much we can do," the cop will say. "They are enjoying the blessings of freedom guaranteed them by the Constitution, as interpreted by the ACLU and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit."

The sound you hear is that of James Madison spinning in his grave, for in a case decided last Friday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit created the constitutional right to be a bum.

Read the whole thing - you won't believe how dumb this ruling was.