The State; Justices Hand L.A.'s Homeless a Victory; In a case with national import, a federal appeals court rules the LAPD cannot arrest people for sitting, lying or sleeping on skid row sidewalks.: [HOME EDITION]

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Los Angeles Police Department cannot arrest people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks on skid row, saying such enforcement amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because there are not enough shelter beds for the city's huge homeless population.

The long-awaited decision effectively kills Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton's original blueprint for cleaning up skid row by removing homeless encampments that rise each evening throughout the 50-block downtown district. That plan has been on hold for three years, and city leaders have recently backed a less aggressive policy.

The ruling also has implications for police agencies around the nation that have grappled with how to deal with the homeless.

Although Los Angeles' policy was considered one of the most restrictive in the nation, other communities have tried milder variations of the same approach. Las Vegas and Portland, Ore., for example, bar sleeping or standing on a sidewalk or other public space only if it obstructs pedestrians or cars, and Seattle, Tucson and Houston limit the hours of enforcement, the opinion said.

City officials said Friday that the ruling makes it likely that the LAPD will move forward with a more moderate skid row policing plan, one that would crack down on crime while allowing cardboard cities.

The city's crackdown will focus "on the predators who are preying on the homeless, whether they are selling drugs, prostitution, whatever it is," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has promised a major push to fix skid row, said Friday.

The mayor said he hoped the court's decision would allow the city to finally move forward with a humane approach that targets crime without making criminals out of transients who have nowhere else to live.

Although the city attorney's office would not say if it would appeal, the suit was filed two years before Villaraigosa's election in 2005. The mayor has repeatedly said he wants a less contentious approach on the homeless issue, and recently appointed Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU's Southern California affiliate, to the city and county Homeless Services Authority. Only the city, as the defendant, can file an appeal.

The decision was issued by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco,...