Opinion ID: 1160118
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the heightened scrutiny versus the rational basis standard of review

Text: When dealing with a facial constitutional challenge of a statute, the legislation enjoys a presumption of constitutionality. Wood v. United States (In re Wood), 866 F.2d 1367, 1370 (11th Cir.1989) (citing Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1, 15, 96 S.Ct. 2882, 2892, 49 L.Ed.2d 752 (1976)); see also Espanola Hous. Auth. v. Atencio, 90 N.M. 787, 788-89, 568 P.2d 1233, 1234-35 (1977). In evaluating a due process or equal protection claim under the Federal or State constitutions, the Court will apply one of three standards of review: strict scrutiny; intermediate scrutiny (also known as substantial, heightened, or high review); and minimal scrutiny (also known as the rational basis test). The same standards of review are used in analyzing both due process and equal protection guarantees. Due process, however, focuses on the validity of legislation as it equally burdens all persons in the exercise of a specific right. Equal protection, on the other hand, focuses on the validity of legislation that permits some individuals to exercise a specific right while denying it to others. John E. Nowak et al., Constitutional Law 423 (1983). We first must decide what interest is involved or to whom the interest belongs. This will determine the appropriate standard of review. Strict scrutiny applies when the violated interest is a fundamental personal right or civil libertysuch as first amendment rights, freedom of association, voting, interstate travel, privacy, and fairness in the deprivation of life, liberty or property which the Constitution explicitly or implicitly guarantees. Nowak et al., supra, at 418 & n. 3, 460-61 (1983); see Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law § 16-7, at 1454 (2d ed. 1988). Strict scrutiny also applies under an equal protection analysis if the statute focuses upon inherently suspect classifications such as race, national origin, religion, or status as a resident alien. Nowak et al., supra, at 448-49; Tribe, supra, § 16-13, at 1465-66; Garcia v. Albuquerque Pub. Schs. Bd. of Educ., 95 N.M. 391, 393, 622 P.2d 699, 701 (Ct.App.1980) (citing City of New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 303, 96 S.Ct. 2513, 2516-17, 49 L.Ed.2d 511 (1976)), writ quashed, 95 N.M. 426, 622 P.2d 1046 (1981). Under this analysis, the burden is placed upon the state to show that the restriction of a fundamental right or the delineation of suspect classes supports a compelling state interest, and that the legislation accomplishes its purposes by the least restrictive means. Bernal v. Fainter, 467 U.S. 216, 219, 104 S.Ct. 2312, 2315-16, 81 L.Ed.2d 175 (1984). Otherwise the statute will be invalidated. See Richardson v. Carnegie Library Restaurant, Inc., 107 N.M. 688, 693, 763 P.2d 1153, 1158 (1988). Strict scrutiny is inappropriate in this case because Section 41-4-16(C) involves no fundamental right and does not focus upon an inherently suspect class in distributing benefits or burdens. The Family wishes us to impose an intermediate or heightened standard of review in evaluating Section 41-4-16. This level of scrutiny is triggered by two broad circumstances: Legislation that impinges upon an importantrather than fundamentalindividual interest, and legislation which uses sensitiverather than suspectclassifications. Tribe, supra, § 16-33, at 1610, 1613; see Richardson, 107 N.M. at 698, 763 P.2d at 1163. Classifications based upon gender, illegitimacy, and mental retardation are examples of such interests. Tribe, supra, § 16-33, at 1614; Nowak et al., supra, at 595; Kadrmas v. Dickinson Pub. Schs., 487 U.S. 450, 451, 108 S.Ct. 2481, 2482-84, 101 L.Ed.2d 399 (1988). This level of evaluation is more sensitive to the risks of injustice than the rational basis standard and yet less blind to the needs of governmental flexibility than strict scrutiny. Tribe, supra, § 16-33, at 1610; Richardson 107 N.M. at 693, 763 P.2d at 1158. The burden is on the party maintaining the statute's validity the stateto prove that the classification is substantially related to an important governmental interest. Trujillo v. City of Albuquerque, 110 N.M. 621, 628, 798 P.2d 571, 578 (1990) (quoting Richardson, 107 N.M. at 695, 763 P.2d at 1160). The rational basis standard of review is triggered by all other interests: those that are not fundamental rights, suspect classifications, important individual interests, and sensitive classifications. This level of scrutiny applies in economic and social legislation, classifications based on property use, and business and personal activities that do not involve fundamental rights. Nowak et al., supra, at 596-97. Underlying this standard is the traditional deference accorded by courts to the legislature's sense of the general good. Tribe, supra, § 16-2, at 1440. Under this test, the burden is on the opponent of the legislation to prove that the law lacks a reasonable relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. Trujillo, 110 N.M. at 628, 798 P.2d at 578. The opponent's burden is difficult because they must demonstrate that the challenged legislation is clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, not just that it is possibly so. Richardson, 107 N.M. at 693, 763 P.2d at 1158. The court will uphold the statute if any state of facts can be discerned that will reasonably sustain the challenged classification. Id. at 693, 763 P.2d at 1158. The Family cites Trujillo v. City of Albuquerque as support for the claim in their Brief in Chief that New Mexico applies the intermediate or heightened scrutiny test... to equal protection attacks on its Torts Claims Act. The Trujillo case, however, deals not with the constitutionality of the notice of claims deadlines, but rather with damage caps on tort violations by the state. Trujillo remanded the case for a determination of the damage cap using the heightened scrutiny test. Id. at 631-32, 798 P.2d at 581-82. The Family's primary case on this issue is not on point. A cap puts a real limit on recovery by a class of more seriously injured tort victims. A notice statute need not be a bar to recovery by any tort victim. See Jaramillo v. State, 111 N.M. 722, 725, 809 P.2d 636, 639 (Ct.App.) (Legally, [ Trujillo ] involve[s] not simply the right of access to the courts, but a constitutionally protected right of full recovery in tort that is one aspect of the general right of access to the courts.), cert. denied, 111 N.M. 416, 806 P.2d 65 (1991). A notice of claim is not a substantive right. Atencio, 90 N.M. at 789, 568 P.2d at 1235. Instead, it is analogous to a statute of limitations, id., or to the statutory period for filing a notice of appeal. Rather than being a protected right, it is similar to the mandatory preconditions to the exercise of jurisdiction that we delineated in Trujillo v. Serrano, 117 N.M. 273, 277, 871 P.2d 369, 373 (1994) (emphasis omitted) (equivocal matters such as the timely filing of a notice of appeal are preconditions to jurisdiction rather than absolute jurisdictional requirements). A Notice of Claims Statute does not preclude or guarantee access to the courts. It merely specifies the circumstances under which a plaintiff can exercise the substantive right of access to the courts. Under a damage cap there is a class of tort victims that would never receive full recovery, while under the Notice of Claims deadline anyone who petitions on time has the opportunity to achieve full recovery. See Coleman v. United Eng'rs & Constructors, 118 N.M. 47, 50-51, 878 P.2d 996, 999-1000 (1994) (distinguishing between the intermediate scrutiny of a torts damage cap and rational basis scrutiny of a notice provision). Numerous New Mexico cases have applied the rational relationship test when evaluating constitutional challenges to notice statutes and statutes of limitation. An equal protection challenge was brought in Espanola Housing Authority v. Atencio against NMSA 1953, Section 23-1-23, which required that negligence claims against a city, town, or village be commenced within one year of the injury. Atencio, 90 N.M. at 788, 568 P.2d at 1234. This law was contrasted by the plaintiffs to NMSA 1953, Section 23-1-8, which provided three years for tort actions against a county or the state. Id. In upholding the statute's constitutionality, this Court used a rational relationship test. Id. at 790, 568 P.2d at 1236. Sena School Bus Co. v. Board of Education, 101 N.M. 26, 677 P.2d 639 (Ct.App. 1984), concerned NMSA 1978, Section 37-1-23, which was challenged on equal protection grounds. That statute placed a two-year statute of limitations on a claim derived from a written contract with government entities. This was compared by the plaintiffs with Section 37-1-4, which permitted four years to sue private entities for breach of unwritten contracts, and Section 37-1-3(A), which allowed six years to bring a claim against private entities for breach of written contracts. Id. at 28-29, 677 P.2d at 641-42. The test used by the Court of Appeals was whether the classification is reasonable. Id. at 29, 677 P.2d at 642 (citing Atencio, 90 N.M. at 789, 568 P.2d at 1235). The 1980 case Garcia v. Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education challenged NMSA 1978, Sections 41-4-1 to -12, which at that time constituted the entire Tort Claims Act. Suit was brought on equal protection grounds because a tort claim against a teacher who allegedly struck a student was not covered by one of the eight exceptions to governmental immunity found in Sections 41-4-5 to -12 of the Act: 1) the operation or maintenance of motor vehicles, aircraft, and watercraft; 2) the operation or maintenance of any building, public park, machinery, equipment or furnishings; 3) the operation of airports; 4) the operation of certain public utilities and services; 5) the operation of certain medical facilities; 6) health care services; 7) the maintenance and existence of highways, streets and certain appurtenances; 8) certain unlawful acts of law enforcement officers. Garcia, 95 N.M. at 393, 622 P.2d at 701. Applying a rational basis standard The Court of Appeals found the Act did not violate the equal protection clauses of the New Mexico and United States Constitutions. The Court rejected strict scrutiny stating that the classification adopted offends no fundamental rights or suspect classes and there are rational bases for the reinstatement of partial sovereign immunity. Id. at 394, 622 P.2d at 702. The rational relationship test was also applied by this Court in Jaramillo, 111 N.M. at 725, 809 P.2d at 639, in a constitutional challenge to the Tort Claims Act notice statute NMSA 1978, Section 41-4-15(A) (Repl. Pamp.1989), which allowed two years to file a claim by those rendered incompetent by a government entity. We find instructive the Tenth Circuit case of Day v. Memorial Hosp. of Guymon, 844 F.2d 728 (10th Cir.1988). There the court interpreted the notice provision of the Oklahoma Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act: A claim against a political subdivision shall be forever barred unless notice thereof is filed with the clerk of the governing body of the political subdivision within one hundred twenty (120) days after a loss occurs. Okla. Stat. tit. 51, § 156(B) (1979). The plaintiff brought an equal protection claim because, while victims of government negligence must give notice of their tort claim ... [t]here is no such requirement for victims of `private' negligence. Day, 844 F.2d at 730. The court rejected strict scrutiny and adopted minimal scrutiny [b]ecause the present case involves neither a suspect class nor a fundamental right, we examine the statute only to see if it rationally furthers a legitimate state interest. Id. at 731 (citing Lacey v. Bekaert Steel Wire Corp., 799 F.2d 434, 436 (8th Cir.1986)). The classification in the Notice of Claims Statute before us is not directed at an important individual interest. In fact the classification is not directed at the plaintiffs at all. It merely classifies defendants and not plaintiffs, as either private or public. Jaramillo, 111 N.M. at 725, 809 P.2d at 639. Intermediate scrutiny of Section 41-4-16 is not supported by New Mexico or federal case law. We conclude that the rational relationship test is the appropriate standard for evaluating the constitutionality of the New Mexico Notice of Claims Statute.