Sac'to Court to hear motion for summary judgment on Lehr v. Sac'to

Loaves & Fishes is distributing flyers to spur attendance at a hearing at U.S. 9th District Court at 501 "I" Street in downtown Sacramento, that will rule on a summary judgment motion with respect to the long-standing case of Anthony Lehr, et al v. City of Sacramento, et al.

The flyer tells us that the hearing will be in Dept. 7 at 2PM on April 30 before Judge Morrison C. England, Jr.

Information on the lawsuit, that was filed August 2, 2007, can be found at the Loaves & Fishes website. L&F, in addition to the homeless-aid organizations SHOC and Francis House, have joined the suit as as plaintiffs. Other information on the beginnings of the lawsuit can be found at the Homeward Street Journal wikispace.

Per the L&F webspace,

The lawsuit challenges the confiscation of personal property belonging to homeless people by the City and County and the practice of law enforcement agencies writing citations for illegal camping to homeless persons sleeping on public property during the night while there is not adequate shelter space.

SacHo has no information on which side in the lawsuit filed the motion, or what it entails. One possiblity is that the City of Sacramento is asking that the suit be summarily dismissed. And the L&F flyer is, then, an attempt to raise a crowd to boo or protest, should the judge affirm the defense team's motion.

Update 4/30/09 10am: I've learned that it is the plaintiff's lead lawyer, Mark Merin, who submitted the summary-judgment motion. What the motion is, specifically, remains unknown to me. Certainly, I wish Merin and the many plaintiffs good luck with the suit and the motion.

Update 5/1/09: Now I learn that my 4/30 information was wrong and that my original supposition was partially right. The summary judgment motion came from the defendent. Sacramento, et al, asked the judge to dismiss at least part of the lawsuit, including issues related to illegal-camping ordinances. The judge promised to rule on the motion within ten days.