Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/427/297/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:31:01+00:00

Document:
A New Orleans ordinance prohibits pushcart food sales in the Vieux Carre, or French Quarter, but by a "grandfather provision" exempts pushcart vendors who had operated in the Quarter for eight years. Appellee, who had conducted a pushcart business there for less than that time, brought suit in the District Court challenging the application of the grandfather provision as a denial of equal protection. The District Court granted appellant city's motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals, finding the grandfather provision a totally arbitrary and irrational method of achieving the city's conceded authority to regulate street business in the Vieux Carre to preserve the Quarter's values as a tourist attraction, and relying mainly on Morey v. Doud, 354 U. S. 457, reversed, and remanded the case for a determination as to the severability of the grandfather provision.
1. This Court has jurisdiction of the appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1254(2), which authorizes this Court's review of an appeal by a party relying on a state statute (including a municipal ordinance) held unconstitutional by a court of appeals. Notwithstanding whether the ordinance as a whole or only its grandfather clause will be invalidated, its unconstitutionality has been definitely and finally adjudicated by the Court of Appeals, leaving no federal issue to be resolved below.
to an invidious discrimination will be held to violate the Equal Protection Clause.
(b) The city could rationally choose initially to eliminate more recent pushcart vendors, rather than absolutely to bar all pushcart vendors, on the ground that the newer businesses were less likely to have built up substantial reliance interests in the Vieux Carre, and that the two vendors that qualified under the grandfather clause themselves have become part of the distinctive charm of the Quarter.
continuing operations there. [Footnote 2] She had previously filed an action in the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana attacking the validity of the former version of the ordinance, [Footnote 3] and amended her complaint to challenge the application of the ordinance's "grandfather clause" -- the "eight years or more" provision -- as a denial of equal protection. She prayed for an injunction and declaratory judgment. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the District Court, without opinion, granted appellant city's motion. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed. 501 F.2d 706 (1974). We postponed the question of this Court's jurisdiction to a hearing on the merits, 421 U.S. 908 (1975). We hold that we have jurisdiction of appellant's appeal, and, on the merits, reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
The Vieux Carre of the city of New Orleans is the heart of that city's considerable tourist industry and an integral component of the city's economy. [Footnote 4] The sector plays a special role in the city's life, and, pursuant to the Louisiana State Constitution, c. 8 of Art. V of the city's Home Rule Charter grants the New Orleans City Council power to enact ordinances designed to preserve its distinctive charm, character, and economic vitality.
"City Council's legitimate authority generally to regulate business conducted on the public streets and sidewalks of the Vieux Carre in order to preserve the appearance and custom valued by the Quarter's residents and attractive to tourists,"
nature of the discrimination and the legitimate governmental interest in conserving the traditional assets of the Vieux Carre," id. at 713, the ordinance was declared violative of equal protection as applied, and the case was remanded for a determination of the severability of the "grandfather clause" from the remainder of the ordinance.
"[b]y appeal by a party relying on a State statute held by a court of appeals to be invalid as repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States. . . ."
A municipal ordinance is a "State statute" for purposes of this provision. See Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U. S. 922, 422 U. S. 927 n. 2 (1975); United Gas Co. v. Ideal Cement Co., 369 U. S. 134 (1962). See also e.g., Dusch v. Davis, 387 U. S. 112 (1967); Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 357 U. S. 77 (1958); City of Detroit v. Murray Corp., 355 U. S. 489 (1958).
and 1291, has no "finality" provision in the statute itself. See, e.g., Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., supra at 422 U. S. 927; Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., supra, at 357 U. S. 82-83. But, without resolving that question, we believe that any "finality" test is met under the facts of this case.
before us under 28 U.S.C. § 1254(2). We therefore turn to the merits.
might thus have a deleterious effect on the economy of the city. They therefore determined that, to ensure the economic vitality of that area, such businesses should be substantially curtailed in the Vieux Carre, if not totally banned.
"[W]e are guided by the familiar principles that a 'statute is not invalid under the Constitution because it might have gone farther than it did,' Roschen v. Ward, 279 U. S. 337, 279 U. S. 339, that a legislature need not 'strike at all evils at the same time,' Semler v. Dental Examiners, 294 U. S. 608, 294 U. S. 610, and that 'reform may take one step at a time, addressing itself to the phase of the problem which seems most acute to the legislative mind,' Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U. S. 483, 348 U. S. 489."
The city could reasonably decide that newer businesses were less likely to have built up substantial reliance interests in continued operation in the Vieux Carre and that the two vendors who qualified under the "grandfather clause" -- both of whom had operated in the area for over 20 years, rather than only eight -- had themselves become part of the distinctive character and charm that distinguishes the Vieux Carre. We cannot say that these judgments so lack rationality that they constitute a constitutionally impermissible denial of equal protection.
"the hypothesis that a present eight-year veteran of the pushcart hot dog market in the Vieux Carre will continue to operate in a manner more consistent with the traditions of the Quarter than would any other operator is without foundation."
501 F.2d at 711. Actually, the reliance on the statute's potential irrationality in Morey v. Doud, as the dissenters in that case correctly pointed out, see 354 U.S. at 354 U. S. 474-475 (Frankfurter, J., joined by Harlan, J., dissenting), was a needlessly intrusive judicial infringement on the State's legislative powers, and we have concluded that the equal protection analysis employed in that opinion should no longer be followed. Morey was the only case in the last half century to invalidate a wholly economic regulation solely on equal protection grounds, and we are now satisfied that the decision was erroneous. Morey is, as appellee and the Court of Appeals properly recognized, essentially indistinguishable from this case, but the decision so far departs from proper equal protection analysis in cases of exclusively economic regulation that it should be, and it is, overruled.
"Vendors who have continuously operated the same business within the Vieux Carre under the authority of this Chapter for eight or more years prior to January 1, 1972, may obtain a valid permit to operate such business within the Vieux Carre."
Jurisdiction was invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § § 1331, 1343(3), (4), and 2201-2202. The equal protection violation was alleged to constitute a violation of 42 U.S.C. § § 1983, 1985.
"Nor is the statute's exception of lawyers a denial of equal protection of the laws to nonlawyers. Statutes create many classifications which do not deny equal protection; it is only 'invidious discrimination' which offends the Constitution. . . . If the State of Kansas wants to limit debt adjusting to lawyers, the Equal Protection Clause does not forbid it."

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