Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/413/528/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:25:02+00:00

Document:
The government cannot exclude households from receiving food stamps based on whether they include a person who is unrelated to any other member of the household.
Food stamps were withheld under the Food Stamp Act of 1964 from a household that contained a person who was unrelated to any other person in the household. Congress passed this law with the stated objective of raising the nutrition levels of poor people and improving the agricultural economy. However, it also was designed in a way that would prevent hippies and hippie communes from getting the benefits of it, as the legislative history revealed. A group of impoverished individuals who lived in households where not all members were related to one another argued that the law was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, and the lower courts agreed.
The purposes of the law are not furthered by withholding its benefits from this particular type of household. Even rational basis review, the lowest standard of scrutiny, requires some reasonable connection between the means used by the government and a legitimate purpose. Preventing hippies and their communes from gaining access to food stamps cannot be defined as a legitimate purpose because it consists simply of a desire to harm a politically unpopular group. Nor does creating the exception to people eligible for benefits support the government interest in reducing fraud. The government provided no persuasive evidence that this type of household will be more likely to fraudulently exploit the program's benefits, and other provisions in the law guard against fraud.
A rational basis standard of review does not require an analysis of the effects of the classification. Any rational basis should be sufficient to uphold the law, and such a basis may be found here because households may be formed solely to take advantage of the program's benefits. A law is not unconstitutional just because it has some negative or unintended effects.
This type of regulation normally would be reviewed (and upheld) under rational basis scrutiny, the lowest standard of review, since it does not relate to a fundamental right or protected group. However, the Court believed that the definition of household was changed to deny assistance to hippie communes, which it did not find to be a permissible justification.
"to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Nation's population and raise levels of nutrition among low income households . . . [and] that increased utilization of food in establishing and maintaining adequate national levels of nutrition will promote the distribution . . . of our agricultural abundance and will strengthen cur agricultural economy. . . ."
The District Court held that the "unrelated person" provision of § 3(e) creates an irrational classification in violation of the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Held: The legislative classification here involved cannot be sustained, the classification being clearly irrelevant to the stated purposes of the Act and not rationally furthering any other legitimate governmental interest. In practical operation, the Act excludes not those who are "likely to abuse the program," but, rather, only those who so desperately need aid that they cannot even afford to alter their living arrangements so as to retain their eligibility. Pp. 533-538. 345 F.Supp. 310, affirmed.
BRENNAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which DOUGLAS, STEWART, WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, and POWELL, JJ., joined. DOUGLAS J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 413 U. S. 538. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BURGER, C.J., joined, post, p. 413 U. S. 545.
This case requires us to consider the constitutionality of § 3(e) of the Food Stamp Act of 1964, 7 U.S.C. § 2012(e), as amended in 1971, 84 Stat. 2048, which, with certain exceptions, excludes from participation in the food stamp program any household containing an individual who is unrelated to any other member of the household. In practical effect, § 3(e) creates two classes of persons for food stamp purposes: one class is composed of those individuals who live in households all of whose members are related to one another, and the other class consists of those individuals who live in households containing one or more members who are unrelated to the rest. The latter class of persons is denied federal food assistance. A three-judge District Court for the District of Columbia held this classification invalid as violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. 345 F.Supp. 310 (1972). We noted probable jurisdiction. 409 U.S. 1036 (1972). We affirm.
upon its size and cumulative income. The food stamps are then used to purchase food at retail stores, and the Government redeems the stamps at face value, thereby paying the difference between the actual cost of the food and the amount paid by the household for the stamps. See 7 U.S.C. §§ 2013(a), 2016, 2025(a).
"a group of related or non-related individuals, who are not residents of an institution or boarding house, but are living as one economic unit sharing common cooking facilities and for whom food is customarily purchased in common. [Footnote 1]"
terminated if appellee Moreno continues to live with them.
Appellee Sheilah Hejny is married and has three children. Although the Hejnys are indigent, they took in a 20-year-old girl, who is unrelated to them, because "we felt she had emotional problems." The Hejnys receive $144 worth of food stamps each month for $14. If they allow the 20-year-old girl to continue to live with them, they will be denied food stamps by reason of § 3(e).
of the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. [Footnote 5] We agree.
purchase a nutritionally adequate diet through normal channels of trade."
"[t]he relationships among persons constituting one economic unit and sharing cooking facilities have nothing to do with their abilities to stimulate the agricultural economy by purchasing farm surpluses, or with their personal nutritional requirements."
public interest, justify the 1971 amendment."
345 F.Supp. at 314 n. 11.
federal food assistance to all otherwise eligible households containing unrelated members constitutes a rational effort to deal with these concerns.
necessarily casts considerable doubt upon the proposition that the 1971 amendment could rationally have been intended to prevent those very same abuses. See Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U. S. 438, 405 U. S. 452 (1972); cf. Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330, 405 U. S. 353-354 (1972).
"a group of related individuals . . .  living as one economic unit  sharing common cooking facilities [and 3] for whom food is customarily purchased in common."
utilize the altered living patterns in order to continue o be eligible without giving up their advantage of shared housing costs."
"[t]he term 'household' shall also mean a single individual living alone who has cooking facilities and who purchases and prepares food for home consumption."
"The term 'household' shall mean a group of related individuals (including legally adopted children and legally assigned foster children) or non-related individuals over age 60 who are not residents of an institution or boarding house, but are living as one economic unit sharing common cooking facilities and for whom food is customarily purchased in common. The term 'household' shall also mean (1) a single individual living alone who has cooking facilities and who purchases and prepares food for home consumption, or (2) an elderly person who meets the requirements of section 2019(h) of this title."
"(jj) 'Household' means a group of persons, excluding roomers, boarders, and unrelated live-in attendants necessary for medical, housekeeping, or child care reasons, who are not residents of an institution or boarding house, and who are living as one economic unit sharing common cooking facilities and for whom food is customarily purchased in common: Provided, That: "
"(1) When all persons in the group are under 60 years of age, they are all related to each other; and"
"(2) When more than one of the persons in the group is under 60 years of age, and one or more other persons in the group is 60 years of age or older, each of the persons under 60 years of age is related to each other or to at least one of the persons who is 60 years of age or older."
"It shall also mean (i) a single individual living alone who purchases and prepares food for home consumption, or (ii) an elderly person as defined in this section, and his spouse."
Appellees also argued that the regulations themselves were invalid because beyond the scope of the authority conferred upon the secretary by the statute. The District Court rejected that contention, and appellees have not pressed that argument on appeal. Moreover, appellees did not challenge the constitutionality of the statutes reliance on "households" rather than "individuals" as the basic unit of the food stamp program. We therefore intimate no view on that question.
Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U. S. 163, 377 U. S. 168 (1964); see Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677, 411 U. S. 680 n. 5 (1973); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 394 U. S. 641-642 (1969); Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U. S. 497 (1954).
Indeed, the amendment first materialized, bare of committee consideration, during a conference committee's consideration of differing House and Senate bills.
"to prevailing notions of morality, since it in terms disqualifies all households of unrelated individuals, without reference to whether a particular group contains both sexes."
Id. at 315. The Government itself has now abandoned the "morality" argument. See Brief for Appellants 9.
"(b) Whoever knowingly uses, transfers, acquires, alters, or possesses coupons or authorization to purchase cards in any manner not authorized by this [Act] or the regulations issued pursuant to this [Act] shall, if such coupons or authorization to purchase cards are of the value of $100 or more, be guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years or both, or, if such coupons or authorization to purchase cards are of a value of less than $100, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."
"(c) Whoever presents, or causes to be presented, coupons for payment or redemption of the value of $100 or more, knowing the same to have been received, transferred, or used in any manner in violation of the provisions of this [Act] or the regulations issued pursuant to this [Act] shall be guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both, or, if such coupons are of a value of less than $100, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."
provision of the Act, [Footnote 2/1] she will be cut off if appellee Moreno continues to live with her.
Appellee Sheilah Hejny is married and has three children, ages two to five. She and her husband took in a 20-year-old girl who is unrelated to them. She shares in the housekeeping. The Hejnys pay $14 a month and receive $144 worth of food stamps. The Hejnys comprise an indigent household. But if they allow the 20-year-old girl to live with them, they too will be cut off from food stamps by reason of the "unrelated" person provision.
Appellee Keppler has a daughter with an acute hearing deficiency who requires instruction in a school for the deaf. The school is in an area where the mother cannot afford to live. So she and her two minor children moved into a nearby apartment with a woman who, like appellee Keppler, is on public assistance but who is not related to her. As a result, appellee Keppler's food stamps have been cut off because of the "unrelated" person provision.
The "unrelated" person provision of the Act creates two classes of persons for food stamp purposes: one class is composed of people who are all related to each other and all in dire need, and the other class is composed of households that have one or more persons unrelated to the others but have the same degree of need as those in the first class. The first type of household qualifies for relief, the second cannot qualify, no matter the need. It is that application of the Act which is said to violate the conception of equal protection that is implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U. S. 497, 347 U. S. 499.
"the power to legislate that different treatment be accorded to persons placed by a statute into different classes on the basis of criteria wholly unrelated to the objective"
of the enactment. Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71, 404 U. S. 75-76.
This case involves desperately poor people with acute problems who, though unrelated, come together for mutual help and assistance. The choice of one's associates for social, political, race, or religious purposes is basic in our constitutional scheme. NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U. S. 449, 357 U. S. 460; De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 U. S. 353, 299 U. S. 363; NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 371 U. S. 429-431; Gibson v. Florida Legislative Committee, 372 U. S. 539; NAACP v. Alabama, 377 U. S. 288. It extends to "the associational rights of the members" of a trade union. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar, 377 U. S. 1, 377 U. S. 8.
I suppose no one would doubt that an association of people working in the poverty field would be entitled to the same constitutional protection as those working in the racial, banking, or agricultural field. I suppose poor people holding a meeting or convention would be under the same constitutional umbrella as others. The dimensions of the "unrelated" person problem under the Food Stamp Act are in that category. As the facts of this case show, the poor are congregating in households where they can better meet the adversities of poverty. This banding together is an expression of the right of freedom of association that is very deep in our traditions.
Other like rights have been recognized that are only peripheral First Amendment rights -- the right to send one's child to a religious school, the right to study the German language in a private school, the protection of the entire spectrum of learning, teaching, and communicating ideas, the marital right of privacy. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479, 381 U. S. 482-483.
Congress might choose to deal only with members of a family of one or two or three generations, treating it all as a unit. Congress, however, has not done that here. Concededly an individual living alone is not disqualified from the receipt of food stamp aid, even though there are other members of the family with whom he might theoretically live. Nor are common law couples disqualified: they, like individuals living alone, may qualify under the Act if they are poor -- whether they have abandoned their wives and children and however anti-family their attitudes may be. In other words, the "unrelated" person provision was not aimed at the maintenance of normal family ties. It penalizes persons or families who have brought under their roof an "unrelated" needy person. It penalizes the poorest of the poor for doubling up against the adversities of poverty.
could not say that this "unrelated" person provision has no "rational" relation to control of fraud. We deal here, however, with the right of association, protected by the First Amendment. People who are desperately poor but unrelated come together and join hands with the aim better to combat the crises of poverty. The need of those living together better to meet those crises is denied, while the need of households made up of relatives that is no more acute is serviced. Problems of the fisc, as we stated in Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 394 U. S. 633, are legitimate concerns of government. But government "may not accomplish such a purpose by invidious distinctions between classes of its citizens." Ibid.
The legislative history of the Act indicates that the "unrelated" person provision of the Act was to prevent "essentially unrelated individuals who voluntarily chose to cohabit and live off food stamps" [Footnote 2/3] -- so-called "hippies" or "hippy communes" -- from participating in the food stamp program. As stated in the Conference Report, [Footnote 2/4] the definition of household was "designed to prohibit food stamp assistance to communal families' of unrelated individuals."
The right of association, the right to invite the stranger into one's home is too basic in our constitutional regime to deal with roughshod. If there are abuses inherent in that pattern of living against which the food stamp program should be protected, the Act must be "narrowly drawn," Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 310 U. S. 307, to meet the precise end. The method adopted and applied to these cases makes § 3(e) of the Act unconstitutional by reason of the invidious discrimination between the two classes of needy persons.
Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, is not opposed. It sustained a Maryland grant of welfare, against the claim of violation of equal protection, which placed an upper limit on the monthly amount any single family could receive. The claimants had large families, so that their standard of need exceeded the actual grants. Their claim was that the grants of aid, considered in light of the size of their families, created an invidious discrimination against them and in favor of small needy families. The claim was rejected on the basis that state economic or social legislation had long been judged by a less strict standard than comes into play when constitutionally protected rights are involved. Id. at 397 U. S. 484-48. Laws touching social and economic matters can pass muster under the Equal Protection Clause though they are imperfect, the test being whether the classification has some "reasonable basis." Ibid. Dandridge held that "the Fourteenth Amendment gives the federal courts no power to impose upon the States their views of what constitutes wise economic or social policy." Id. at 397 U. S. 486. But for the First Amendment aspect of the case, Dandridge would control here.
Dandridge, however, did not reach classifications touching on associational rights that lie in the penumbra of the First Amendment. Since the "unrelated" person provision is not directed to the maintenance of the family as a unit but treats impoverished households composed of relatives more favorably than impoverished households having a single unrelated person, it draws a line that can be sustained only on a showing of a "compelling" governmental interest.
associate" it "is subject to the closest scrutiny." NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. at 357 U. S. 460-461. The "right of the people peaceably to assemble" guaranteed by the First Amendment covers a wide spectrum of human interests -- including, as stated in id. at 357 U. S. 460, "political, economic, religious, or cultural matters." Banding together to combat the common foe of hunger is in that category. The case therefore falls within the zone represented by Shapiro v. Thompson, supra, which held that a waiting period on welfare imposed by a State on the "in-migration of indigents" penalizing the constitutional right to travel could not be sustained absent a "compelling governmental interest." Id. at 394 U. S. 631, 394 U. S. 634.
"The term 'household' shall mean a group of related individuals (including legally adopted children and legally assigned foster children) or non-related individuals over age 60 who are not residents of an institution or boarding house, but are living as one economic unit sharing common cooking facilities and for whom food is customarily purchased in common."
"'Household' means a group of persons, excluding roomers, boarders, and unrelated live-in attendants necessary for medical, housekeeping, or child care reasons, who are not residents of an institution or boarding house, and who are living as one economic unit sharing common cooking facilities and for whom food is customarily purchased in common: Provided, That: "
"Eligibility for and participation in the program shall be on a household basis. All persons, excluding roomers, boarders, and unrelated live-in attendants necessary for medical, housekeeping, or child care reasons, residing in common living quarters shall be consolidated into a group prior to determining if such a group is a household as determined in § 270.2(jj) of this subchapter."
"[T]o safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Nation's population and raise levels of nutrition among low income households. The Congress hereby finds that the limited food purchasing power of low income households contributes to hunger and malnutrition among members of such households. The Congress further finds that increased utilization of food in establishing and maintaining adequate national levels of nutrition will promote the distribution in a beneficial manner of our agricultural abundances and will strengthen our agricultural economy, as well as result in more orderly marketing and distribution of food. To alleviate such hunger and malnutrition, a food stamp program is herein authorized which will permit low income households to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet through normal channels of trade."
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 91-1793, p. 8.
For much the same reasons as those stated in my dissenting opinion in United States Department of Agriculture v. Murry, ante p. 413 U. S. 522, I am unable to agree with the Court's disposition of this case. Here, appellees challenged a provision in the Federal Food Stamp Act, 7 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq., which limited food stamps to related people living in one "household." The result of this provision is that unrelated persons who live under the same roof and pool their resources may not obtain food stamps even though otherwise eligible.
determination of whether there is any rational basis on which Congress could decide that public funds made available under the food stamp program should not go to a household containing an individual who is unrelated to any other member of the household.
I do not believe that asserted congressional concern with the fraudulent use of food stamps is, when interpreted in the light most favorable to sustaining the limitation, quite as irrational as the Court seems to believe. A basic unit which Congress has chosen for determination of availability for food stamps is the "household," a determination which is not criticized by the Court. By the limitation here challenged, it has singled out households which contain unrelated persons and made such households ineligible. I do not think it is unreasonable for Congress to conclude that the basic unit which it was willing to support with federal funding through food stamps is some variation on the family as we know it -- a household consisting of related individuals. This unit provides a guarantee which is not provided by households containing unrelated individuals that the household exists for some purpose other than to collect federal food stamps.
on grounds such as those urged by appellees here. In Mourning v. Family Publications Service, Inc., 411 U. S. 356 (1973), the imposition of the rule on all members of a defined class was sustained because it served to discourage evasion by a substantial portion of that class of disclosure mechanisms chosen by Congress for consumer protection.
The limitation which Congress enacted could, in the judgment of reasonable men, conceivably deny food stamps to members of households which have been formed solely for the purpose of taking advantage of the food stamp program. Since the food stamp program is not intended to be a subsidy for every individual who desires low-cost food, this was a permissible congressional decision quite consistent with the underlying policy of the Act. The fact that the limitation will have unfortunate and perhaps unintended consequences beyond this does not make it unconstitutional.
U.S. Department of Agriculture et al.

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