Committee votes to strip 'vagrancy' from municipal code, citing Supreme Court limits
House Bill 432, to remove municipalities' authority to prohibit "vagrancy," passed the Judiciary Committee 14–5. Counsel told members 'vagrancy' is void for vagueness and that status-based prohibitions are constitutionally vulnerable under Supreme Court precedent (cited case from 2024).
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Madam Chair introduced House Bill 432, sponsored by Delegate Mary Q. North, which would remove the statutory term "vagrancy" and thereby prevent municipalities from criminalizing status-based conduct described as vagrancy. Legal counsel told the committee that the bill "puts us in line with Supreme Court jurisprudence" and that statutes criminalizing vagrancy are "void for vagueness" and impermissibly punish a person's status rather than specific conduct. Counsel referenced a 2024 Supreme Court decision involving Grants Pass and a related line of cases that distinguished prohibitions on status from targeted prohibitions on conduct such as camping or sleeping in public under defined circumstances.
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