Judge Says Homeless Can't Camp on State Land

A New Hampshire Superior Court Judge has found that homeless people who have been camping on state-owned land do not have constitutional rights to do so and can be removed by the state and law enforcement. 
The court order was released on July 2. 
The suit was brought by Barbara Keshen, an attorney with the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of a number of campers, some who had been evicted from state land behind the Everett Arena, off Hazen Drive, and along the Merrimack River. 
Keshen and others have stressed the point that state land is public land and therefore, the homeless who were camping on the land, as members of the public, had a constitutional right to stay.
In the judgment, the court disagreed with the point, saying that just because the land was public did not mean the governmental body couldn't regulate or have jurisdiction over how the public land was used.
The court also addressed claims that camper's materials being confiscated violated the Fourth Amendment.
The judgment found that no fundamental right as absolute, and would not be protected while the rights of others were infringed, or when they choose to reside on property that is not theirs.
The judgment concluded that the petitioner's "legal claims lacked merit" even though the judge found the testimony "troubling" and acknowledged that homeless in New Hampshire and Concord was a societal problem. 
The 15-page judgment is attached to this story in PDF.