More on The Boise Case:  A piece by Anchorage attorney Lee Baxter in the Alaska Landmine, discusses at length the petition by Boise, Idaho to have SCOTUS review the Ninth Circuit's 2018 Martin v. Boise ruling.  The court held that Boise, by enforcing its anti-camping ordinance, had criminalized homelessness and violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  This is the proponents argument.  But Baxter believes that, "the Martin decision does not prohibit the Municipality of Anchorage from taking other actions to prevent to remove any individual, including homeless individuals, from camping in public places" so long as they are not criminally punished. In 2000, the Eleventh Circuit held in Joel v. City of Orlando  that the anti-camping ordinance punished conduct, which is constitutional, and not status, which is not.  The proponents argue that homeless sleeping in parks or on sidewalks is involuntary conduct, meaning that they have no other options. Seven states including Alaska and several California cities including Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego have filed briefs in support of Boise.  The CJLF brief in this case is here. 

Illegal Sought for Killing Oregon Woman:  An illegal alien from Mexico has fled to his home country to escape prosecution for the July 12 death of a Portland woman and the serious injury of her husband.  Travis Fedschun of Fox News reports that 20-year-old Alejandro Maldonado-Hernandez was arrested and charged with felony manslaughter and several other crimes after his car crashed while he was street-racing, killing Janice Ator and injuring her husband Patrick.  An ICE detainer request was ignored by the Washington County Sheriff's Office, which released Maldonado-Hernandez on bail on August 8.  Later that month ICE reported that the suspect had fled to Mexico and that three people who helped him flee have been arrested by federal agents.  Oregon is a sanctuary state which prohibits its law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, including holding criminal aliens to allow ICE to take them into custody.  Recently, the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court announced a new rule which forbids ICE agents from arresting criminal aliens inside or near state courthouses without a federal arrest warrant.  In non-sanctuary states where federal warrants are not required, criminal aliens are held briefly in local jails until ICE agents can pick them up for deportation.  Nathalie Asher, Field Director of ICE stated, "How many lives have to be lost before politicians are more concerned about public safety than their own political agendas?"