William O. Douglas

“ They 'confined the labouring population to stated places of abode, and required them to work at specified rates of wages. Wandering or vagrancy thus became a crime.' [4] History tells the story from the point of view of the Establishment: that wandering bands of people, who had left their masters, committed all sorts of crimes and hence must be punished for wandering. That philosophy obtains in this country, because the English statutes provided the seed of our vagrancy laws. ”

“ Hunt, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 159, 161, 163 F.2d 833, 835, 'A vagrant is a probable criminal; and the purpose of the statute is to prevent crimes which may likely flow from his mode of life.' The vagrant, therefore, is not necessarily one who has committed any crime but one who reflects 'a present condition or status.' Handler v. Denver, 102 Colo. 53, 58, 77 P.2d 132, 135. Cf. Ex parte Branch, 234 Mo. 466, 470-471, 137 S.W. 886, 887. That condition is not a failure to make a productive contribution to society, for the idle rich are not reached. The idle pauper is the target. ”

“ The students were priced out of Georgetown, moved to Foggy Bottom, then relocated to the DuPont Circle area when urban renewal closed Foggy Bottom to them.
They live for blocks around the Circle in low-rent rooming houses, studios and shared apartments. Most are poor, some are out of school temporarily to work evenings and part-time wherever they can find jobs. ”

“ But there was incongruity in superimposing the English anti-migratory policy upon the law of America:
'Vast movements of people motivated by urgent economic need settled this country from Europe, pushed settlement westward and fed growing cities from rural population reservoirs. ”

“ I do not see how under our constitutional system either of those elements can be made a crime. To do so serves the cause either of arrests and convictions on suspicion or of arrests and convictions of unpopular minorities (Edelman v. People of State of California, 344 U.S. 357, 366, 73 S.Ct. 293, 298, 97 L.Ed. 387, dissenting opinion) -procedures very convenient to the police [6] but foreign to our system.
I do not see how economic or social status can be made a crime any more than being a drug addict can be. ”

“ Economic conditions changed; when work became scarce, laborers were forced to look elsewhere. The focus of the laws dealing with laborers shifted; the ban on migration became a preventive to keep a parish from being saddled with the needs of foreign paupers and idlers. 'The vagrant came to be regarded rather as a probable criminal than as a runaway slave. He must be made to work or else be treated as a criminal.' Stephen, op. cit. supra, at 274.↑ Stephen, op. cit. supra, at 267.↑ Foote, Vagrancy-Type Law and Its Administration, 104 U.Pa.L.Rev. ”

“ The purpose of these statutes was to offset the loss of workers and to check the rise in wages which resulted from the Black Death. Those able to work, and lacking other means of support were compelled to work, and at regulated wages. Workers were confined to their existing place of residence. ”