Opinion ID: 2975726
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fundamental Right to Travel

Text: Plaintiffs correctly argue that even in the absence of a suspect class, a classification warrants strict scrutiny if it burdens the exercise of a fundamental right. They argue that denial of a driver license that may be used for identification purposes burdens their fundamental right to travel. The district court recognized that the Supreme Court has recognized a protected right to interstate travel, Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489, 500 (1999), and the Sixth Circuit has recognized a protected right to intrastate travel, i.e., “a right to travel locally through public spaces and roadways,” Johnson v. City of Cincinnati, 310 F.3d 484, 494-98 (6th Cir. 2002). LULAC, 2004 WL 3048724 at . Yet, the district court held the protected right to travel does not embody a right to a driver license or a right to a particular mode of transportation, citing Duncan v. Cone, 2000 WL 1828089 (6th Cir.) (unpublished) (holding “there is no fundamental right to drive a motor vehicle.”); John Doe No. 1 v. Georgia Dep’t of Public Safety, 147 F. Supp. 2d 1369, 1375 (N.D. Ga. 2001) (observing that “the Circuit Courts have uniformly held that burdens on a single mode of transportation do not implicate the right to interstate travel,” and collecting cases). Further, the district court held that the right to travel, whatever its contours, is not infringed by Chapter 778 because a person who receives a certificate for driving is able to operate a motor vehicle just like a person who receives a driver license. LULAC, 2004 WL 3048724 at . Potential difficulties that may be experienced by one who does not have a driver license to use for identification purposes were held not to implicate the right to travel. In Saenz, the Supreme Court identified three components of the right to travel: “It protects the right of a citizen of one State to enter and to leave another State, the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second State, and, for those travelers who elect to become permanent residents, the right to be treated like other citizens in that State. 526 U.S. at 500. Plaintiffs have not identified, nor have we uncovered, any authority for the proposition that lawful temporary resident aliens enjoy the same fundamental right to travel that citizens do. Yet, even assuming temporary resident aliens’ right to travel is constitutionally protected, the question remains whether such right is impermissibly burdened by Chapter 778. imposed a “lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status” could not be considered rational unless it furthered some “substantial” goal of the state. Id. at 223-24. Here, in contrast, plaintiffs have failed to identify any hardship visited upon Chavez by the denial of photo identification that would warrant heightened rational basis scrutiny. 8 We are neither oblivious to nor persuaded by the concerns raised in our esteemed colleague’s dissenting opinion. In this case, as in many, the answer depends on how the question is framed. The dissent charges us with applying an overly narrow construction of, or carving out an unwarranted exception to, existing Supreme Court precedent in a way that reflects “a value judgment as to the status of legal aliens in our society.” By affirming the lower court’s order dismissing plaintiffs’ action for failure to state a valid claim, we are said to have “created a rule” that could be significantly more harmful to nonimmigrant aliens in other contexts than the classification drawn by the Tennessee Legislature in this case. First, the question posed is whether the district court erred in dismissing the specific equal protection claim brought by plaintiffs in their complaint. The dissent’s concern about “other contexts” invites speculation immaterial to resolution of the issues posed by the instant claim. By focusing on the particular statute challenged and the specific concrete harm alleged by plaintiffs, we adhere to our proper judicial role. We are not distracted by “other contexts” not before the court and we do not purport to create any generally applicable “rule.” Our holding—that Tennessee’s issuance of certificates for driving to temporary resident aliens, in lieu of driver licenses, is not subject to heightened scrutiny—is explicitly tied to the facts that (1) Tennessee’s classification, far from evidencing invidious discrimination, is not only consistent with, but actually mirrors federal law; and (2) the classification works practically no cognizable harm, but only speculative inconvenience. Our more deferential approach to Tennessee’s legislative judgment, based on the Supreme Court’s guidance in Nyquist and other precedents, as elaborated on in LeClerc, is thus born of due respect for principles of federalism and comity, and bespeaks no “value judgment” on the status of legal aliens in our society. No. 06-5306 League of United Latin Am. Citizens, Page 10 et al. v. Bredesen, et al. A state law implicates the right to travel when it actually deters travel, when impeding travel is its primary objective, or when it uses a classification that serves to penalize the exercise of the right. Attorney General of New York v. Soto-Lopez, 476 U.S. 898, 903 (1986). Tennessee’s issuance of certificates for driving, which confer all the same driving privileges as driver licenses, is clearly not designed primarily to impede travel and can hardly be said to deter or penalize travel. The state’s denial of state-issued photograph identification to temporary resident aliens may arguably result in inconvenience, requiring the bearer of a certificate for driving to carry other personal identification papers, but this inconvenience can hardly be said to deter or penalize travel. To the extent this inconvenience burdens exercise of the right to travel at all, the burden is incidental and negligible, insufficient to implicate denial of the right to travel. See Town of Southold v. Town of East Hampton, 477 F.3d 38, 54 (2d Cir. 2007) (collecting cases recognizing that even citizens do not have a constitutional right to the most convenient form of travel). Something more than a negligible or minimal impact on the right to travel is required before strict scrutiny is applied. State of Kansas v. United States, 16 F.3d 436, 442 (D.C. Cir. 1994). Plaintiffs contend it is conceivable that they could prove the certificate for driving might not be accepted by an insurance company as satisfactory evidence of identification. If they could not obtain automobile insurance, they argue, they would be prevented from driving legally in Tennessee. While the argument is “conceivable,” it is hardly plausible. Plaintiffs offer no reason to believe any insurance company would find a passport or other personal identification document, presented in conjunction with a certificate for driving, inadequate for issuance of automobile insurance.9 Even if such an eventuality were deemed plausible, its occurrence and the resulting incidental “burden” on travel would hardly be attributable to Chapter 778, but rather to a private entity’s exercise of business discretion. Plaintiffs’ argument is simply too speculative, factually and legally, to justify the conclusion that their right to travel is impermissibly burdened by issuance of a certificate for driving that is not valid for identification. Accordingly, we find no error in the district court’s determination that rational basis scrutiny applies, because Chapter 778 implicates neither a suspect class nor a fundamental right. 2. Rational Relationship to Legitimate Government Purpose Under traditional rational basis scrutiny, a state law classification will be upheld “so long as it bears a rational relation to some legitimate end.” Vacco, 521 U.S. at 799. The reason for such deferential review is explained as follows: The initial discretion to determine what is “different” and what is “the same” resides in the legislatures of the States. A legislature must have substantial latitude to establish classifications that roughly approximate the nature of the problem perceived, that accommodate competing concerns both public and private, and that account for limitations on the practical ability of the State to remedy every ill. In applying the Equal Protection Clause to most forms of state action, we thus seek only the assurance that the classification at issue bears some fair relationship to a legitimate public purpose. LeClerc, 419 F.3d at 420 (quoting Plyler, 457 U.S. at 216). 9 In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that automobile insurance companies are increasingly targeting unlicensed illegal aliens as a lucrative market. Miriam Jordan, Illegal Residents Get Legal Route to Car Coverage, The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2007, at A1, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117798644243587739.html. If insurance is readily available to illegal aliens, the notion that lawful temporary resident aliens may be denied coverage is simply not plausible. No. 06-5306 League of United Latin Am. Citizens, Page 11 et al. v. Bredesen, et al. The district court accepted that Chapter 778’s classification was designed to serve homeland security interests by indicating to third parties that the State of Tennessee does not vouch for the identity of the person holding a certificate for driving while at the same time allowing the holder of the certificate to validly operate a motor vehicle in Tennessee. The court concluded that the balancing of interests achieved by issuing certificates for driving to aliens who are not lawful permanent residents is rationally related to this purpose. Plaintiffs do not directly challenge this aspect of the district court’s ruling. They argue that, irrespective of the level of scrutiny employed, the classification must be carefully examined to ensure that it rationally furthers some legitimate, articulated purpose. This careful examination can hardly be conducted, they contend, based on the pleadings alone pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). In urging this “careful” or “stringent” examination, plaintiffs rely on cases that addressed discriminatory treatment of suspect classes, i.e., cases that employed heightened scrutiny. See Examining Board, 426 U.S. at 605; Griffiths, 413 U.S. at 721-22. However, a classification such as Chapter 778, subject to rational basis review, is accorded a “strong presumption of validity.” Heller v. Doe by Doe, 509 U.S. 312, 319 (1993). The state has no obligation to produce evidence sustaining the rationality of the classification. Id. at 320. To overcome this strong presumption of validity, a challenger has the burden of negating all possible rational justifications for the classification. Id.; Gean v. Hattaway, 330 F.3d 758, 771 (6th Cir. 2003). Plaintiffs have not carried this burden either in their pleadings or in their appellate arguments. The district court’s conclusion that the state’s interest—in refraining from vouching for the identity of aliens who have not been granted permanent resident status by the federal government but whose permission to stay here is tied to a specific purpose or period of time—is legitimate and rationally served by Chapter 778 has not been shown to be erroneous. For the reasons set forth above, it is apparent that, even upon viewing the allegations of plaintiffs’ complaint in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, they fail to set forth a factual basis upon which relief can be granted under the Equal Protection Clause. That the classification might ultimately be shown to have been drawn unnecessarily broadly and to result in differential treatment and even inconvenience is of no consequence where the classification is subject only to deferential rational basis scrutiny. See Heller, 509 U.S. at 321 (observing that a classification does not fail rational basis review simply because it is not made with “mathematical nicety” or because it results in some inequality). This is because, under rational basis review, the court is obliged “to accept a legislature’s generalizations even when there is an imperfect fit between means and ends.” Id. Accordingly, plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that the challenged classification is not rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. The district court’s dismissal of their equal protection claim for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted must therefore be affirmed.