Advocates Say the Decision Reinforces First Amendment Protections Amid a Nationwide Push to Criminalize Homelessness
Advocates celebrated on March 2 after the Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging a basic right of people experiencing homelessness — the right to ask for help.
The Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal filed by the State of Alabama challenging a lawsuit that found a new law criminalizing panhandling was illegal. The case, Singleton v. Alabama, was filed in 2020 and argued that the panhandling law violated the First Amendment rights of the three people experiencing homelessness who challenged the ordinance.
Lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Homelessness Law Center represented the plaintiffs in the case.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to not hear Alabama’s appeal leaves in place a ruling from the Eleventh Circuit that states cannot criminalize people simply for holding signs expressing that they are hungry and homeless,” Micah West, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC, said in a press release.
“The decision ends a six-year legal battle about whether the First Amendment protects the rights of people experiencing homelessness to ask for help to meet their basic needs,” West added. “Although we are pleased with the Court’s decision, we cannot move toward a truly inclusive nation if the right to freely express oneself — and in this case, advocate for basic needs — is a crime.”
A Six-Year Legal Fight Over Whether Asking for Help Is Protected Speech
Since 2018, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, has issued more than 400 citations to homeless residents under its new anti-panhandling statute, according to the lawsuit. People who received those citations faced a maximum penalty of up to $200 or 30 days in jail as punishment. Law enforcement officers have also threatened multiple unhoused people with arrest for asking for help, the lawsuit added.
Montgomery initially settled the case in 2020 and agreed to stop ticketing people asking for help. Alabama’s law enforcement secretary, Hal Taylor, appealed the case to the Middle District of Alabama in 2023, arguing that the intended meaning of the First Amendment when the Constitution was written didn’t include begging. The court ruled that the ordinance, as applied, was unconstitutional. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in 2025.
Taylor told The Alabama Reflector that he plans to continue “fighting urban decay” after the Supreme Court’s decision. He added that he has “deep concern” with the role of federal courts in local governance.
“Our commitment to tackling urban decay remains firm, and we will continue pursuing all available legal tools to do so,” Taylor told the outlet. “While we are disappointed with the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case, our dedication to constitutional originalism is unwavering, and we will press forward through every appropriate channel.”
To advocates like Will Knight, decriminalization director at the National Homelessness Law Center, the Supreme Court’s decision affirmed that it is not a crime to ask for help.
“This decision sends a clear message: Stop punishing people who are trying to make ends meet,” Knight said. “Instead of making survival a crime, lawmakers must use their power to ensure that everybody has a safe place to live, access to the care they need, and food they can afford.”
A Victory for Advocates — But Criminalization Continues to Spread Nationwide
The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Singleton v. Montgomery came at a critical time in America’s fight to end homelessness.
Since June 2024, there has been an onslaught of criminalization across the country. More than 300 cities have introduced legislation to prohibit acts commonly associated with homelessness, such as lying down in public or building a temporary shelter to protect oneself from the elements.
At the same time, the federal government is trying to turn back the clock on how America addresses homelessness. In March 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that homelessness is a criminal justice and mental health problem, and that cities need to treat it as such. That order inspired some states like Utah to pursue massive projects that appear to act more like jails than homeless shelters.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has also attempted to overhaul how homeless services are funded, which some providers called a “life or death” move. The proposed rule change would have capped the amount of money Continuum of Care grantees can spend on proven solutions like Permanent Supportive Housing. Under the proposed rules, grantees could only spend 30% of their award on PSH. Currently, about 90% of the funds awarded through the CoC grant program support existing PSH properties.
Advocates warned that change alone could cause roughly 170,000 people to immediately return to homelessness. A federal judge in Rhode Island has stopped the changes from being implemented, but HUD has signaled that it is working to push the changes through in other ways.
Congress has passed a law mandating that HUD pay any grant awards that were accepted through the first quarter of 2026, but what happens after that remains to be seen.
“This outcome is a direct result of communities speaking with one voice,” Deborah De Santis, CEO of the Center for Supportive Housing, said in a statement. “Advocates and leaders from housing, services, businesses, and local governments across the United States met with congressional offices, shared potential impacts, and pushed for a solution that centered on people’s housing stability. Congress listened, and the final bill protects essential housing and services at a moment when stability and safety are critical for individuals and communities.”
Why This Moment Demands More Public Engagement, Not Less
Now is not the time to be silent about homelessness in the United States or anywhere else. Unhoused people deserve safe and sanitary housing just as much as those who can afford rent or a mortgage.
Poverty and homelessness are both policy choices, not personal failures. That’s why we need you to contact your officials and tell them you support legislation that:
- Streamlines the development of affordable housing
- Reduces barriers for people experiencing homelessness to enter permanent housing
- Bolsters government response to homelessness
Together, we can end homelessness.