Robbie Powelson is an affiliate with the Criminal Law and Justice Center. Robbie has spent the past five years working directly with unhoused individuals and encampment communities across Northern California to challenge government actions through federal injunctions. Many of these cases have resulted in emergency restraining orders, major settlements, and historic injunctions protecting unhoused people. Notable cases include, Boyd v. City of San Rafael, which protected a large encampment from displacement and became a focal point during oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. Grants Pass; Alfred v. Vallejo, which produced the first preliminary injunction halting an encampment eviction post-Grants Pass; and Knight v Richardson Bay Regional Agency which ended the practice of government authorities seizing the boat homes of people living on Richardson Bay without warrants.
In his spare time, Robbie sails and is an award winning Ikebana practitioner.