The city and county of Los Angeles may have a strong case as they seek to overturn a sweeping federal judicial order requiring them to offer shelter to everyone on skid row, legal analysts who have followed the case say.

The city and county have asked for the order to be stayed until the appeal is heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A stay would freeze the order from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, including the requirement that the city put $1 billion in escrow to pay for the clearance, until the appeal was decided.

At the heart of Carter’s injunction is the argument that a long history of state-sponsored racism in Los Angeles has driven Black people into homelessness. Legally, the argument rests on the question of whether there’s a “state-created danger” and whether government inaction has put more people at risk.

The injunction was necessary, Carter wrote, because the city and county failed to fix the problem “despite numerous opportunities and resources to do so.”

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