The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear several new cases this term, including the question of whether homeless people have a right to camp on public property as Democratic-controlled cities have struggled to mitigate surging encampments in public.

Several Democrats on the West Coast, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have asked the high court to review a lower court decision that blocked an anti-camping ordinance in the town of Grant Pass, Oregon. These Democratic-state leaders are taking an unorthodox stance on the issue of homelessness, hoping the Supreme Court will overturn the more liberal-leaning U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and allow them to more effectively prevent people from living on city streets.

“California has invested billions to address homelessness, but rulings from the bench have tied the hands of state and local governments to address this issue,” Newsom said in a statement shortly after the high court agreed to consider the case, Grant Pass v. Johnson. “The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need.”

The justices are being asked to overturn the 2018 ruling in Martin v. City of Boise, which saw the appeals court rule that it was cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize sleeping on public property if the person has nowhere else to sleep. Grant Pass referenced a number of potential consequences if the ruling was upheld, such as “the reemergence of medieval diseases,” drug overdoses, and deaths.

A pair of homeless people in Grant Pass who challenged the city’s ordinance told the justices not to take up the case, saying that the law prohibits individuals from sleeping in any public space in violation of 8th Amendment protections from cruel and unusual punishment.

The city of Grant Pass contends there is “nothing” cruel or unusual about handing out civil fines for violating commonplace restrictions on public camping, according to its petition.

So far, the 9th Circuit has held in both Boise and Grant Pass that ” the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.”

Grant Pass contends that the appeals court’s precedent is out of sync with other circuit courts’ precedent and that the high court, which maintains a 6-3 Republican-appointed majority, should solve the split issue.

Newsom is in lockstep with San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D), who has criticized a similar ruling that barred her administration from clearing out homeless encampments. There, retailers have fled the city in droves as the rise in homelessness has coincided with a rise in shoplifting and violence against store employees.