Membership and Inclusion: Plyler and Cleburne

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Membership and Inclusion Plyler and Cleburne

• Professor Garcia
• Office Hour 2-3 today
• Rjgarcia_at_ucsd.edu
• Friday Boumediene,Read Pages 361-362, 382-384,
  393-395

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Rodriguez Questions Presented

• Is wealth a suspect classification under the
  Equal Protection Clause?
• Is education a fundamental right in the federal
  constitution?
• What level of scrutiny should be applied to the
  Texas school finance system?
• If the system fails scrutiny, what should the
  remedy be?

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Majority has problem with wealth as a suspect
class

• There were assumed congruencies between district
  wealth, property tax revenues, and expenditures
  on education. These are not present. None of the
  disabilities of other suspect classes, such as
  a history of purposeful or unequal treatment, or
  relegated to such a position of political
  powerlessness as to command extraordinary
  protection from marjoritarian political
  processes. Reader 320

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Rodriguez Dissenting Opinions

• Justice Brennan believes that education is
  fundamental, because it is essential to the
  fulfillment of explict rights in the
  Constitution, such as freedom of association,
  speech and the vote.
• Justice White, joined by Justices Douglas and
  Brennan, believe there is no rational
  relationship between the schools system and the
  goal of local control.
• Justice Marshall appeals to a spectrum approach
  to scrutiny.

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Noncitizen Membership

• Noncitizensauthorized and unauthorized. Alien
  is a legal term. Illegal is not.
• Constitution gives the federal government the
  exclusive power to regulate immigration in
  Article I, Sec. 8, To establish a uniform rule
  of naturalization.
• But Rodriguez said that local control and
  regulation of schools is a permissible goal for
  states to have.

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Equal Protection of Aliens

• When the federal government discriminates against
  aliens, there is low scrutiny of the law.
• The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
  applies to persons not citizens. Const. does
  not distinguish between legal and illegal
  persons.
• Alienage classifications by the states are one
  of the categories that the courts apply strict
  scrutiny. Political powerlessness.

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Plyler v. Doe (1982)

• In 1975, Eagle Pass and Brownsville School
  Districts, with 90 Mexican American population,
  excluded undocumented children. State could
  withhold funds from those who admitted
  undocumented students.
• Not all districts excluded some charged tuition
  to undocumented students.
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
  (MALDEF) brings suit.

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Plyler Questions Presented

• Does the federal plenary power over immigration
  preempt Texass law?
• Are undocumented aliens persons under the Equal
  Protection clause?
• What scrutiny should be applied to the Texas law
  excluding undocumented alien children from a free
  public education?
• Is the preservation of state resources a
  substantial interest for excluding undocumented
  aliens from schools?

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Majority Opinion by Brennan, J.

• The Texas law must be struck down
• Compare illegitimacy One of the reasons that we
  are suspect of such classifications is because
  the children played no part in their status.
• Heightened scrutiny should be applied to the
  law. There is no substantial government interest
  here. By contrast, education is not just another
  government benefit.