The Naperville City Council voted, 7-1, to draft ordinances that would effectively ban people from camping out on public sidewalks in the city, the Chicago Tribune reports.
One man has set up a dwelling on a downtown sidewalk, complete with a generator, computers, and a heater, and he has made it clear he plans to stay a while. Any new ordinance, if aimed specifically at him, would (of course) be unconstitutional because it would violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
However, Naperville City Council members say the ordinance is aimed at maintaining law and order in the downtown area.
Fine, but when you consider this man is the only one who would be forced out of downtown Naperville as a result of the enforcement of the proposed ordinance, 14th Amendment questions are bound to surface.