Opinion ID: 2659142
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the federal classifications: a uniform

Text: NATIONAL POLICY The Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government possesses extensive powers to regulate immigration and the conditions under which aliens remain in the United States. See Arizona v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2492, 2498 (2012) (“This authority [to regulate immigration and the status of aliens] rests, in part, on the National Government’s constitutional power to ‘establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,’ U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 4, and its inherent power as sovereign to control and conduct relations with foreign nations. . . .” (citations omitted)). The reference to naturalization has been read broadly to mean federal control over the status of aliens, not just criteria for citizenship. Id. (“The Government of the United States has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens.”); see also Takahashi v. Fish & Game Comm’n, 334 U.S. 410, 419 (1948) (noting congressional power under the Naturalization Clause to regulate the conduct of aliens). In the Welfare Reform Act, Congress announced a “national policy with respect to welfare and immigration.” 8 U.S.C. § 1601. Congress determined that immigrant selfsufficiency was an element of U.S. immigration policy and that there was a compelling national interest in assuring both 18 KORAB V. FINK “that aliens be self-reliant” and that the availability of public benefits does not serve as an “incentive for illegal immigration.” Id. § 1601(5)–(6). To accomplish these objectives, the statute sets out a comprehensive set of eligibility requirements governing aliens’ access to both federal and state benefits. Federal benefits are, of course, strictly circumscribed by designated categories. Even for wholly state-funded benefits, the Act establishes three categories that states must follow: one category of aliens to whom states must provide all state benefits, a second category of aliens for whom states must not provide any state benefits, and a third category of aliens for whom Congress authorizes states to determine eligibility for state benefits. Id. §§ 1621–22. The limited discretion authorized for the third category, which includes COFA Residents, does not undermine the uniformity requirement of the Naturalization Clause. On the federal level, only the Tenth Circuit has considered this issue. Soskin v. Reinertson, 353 F.3d 1242, 1256–57 (10th Cir. 2004). Like Hawai‘i, Colorado initially chose to provide wholly state-funded health insurance coverage to all aliens in the third category. Id. at 1246. When Colorado did an about-face in 2003 and dropped this coverage, Soskin sued, arguing that letting states determine benefit eligibility was unconstitutional because it was not a sufficiently uniform federal rule. Id. Looking to the origin of the Naturalization Clause, the Tenth Circuit concluded that “the uniformity requirement in the Naturalization Clause is not undermined by the [Welfare Reform Act’s] grant of discretion to the states with respect to alien qualifications for Medicaid benefits.” Id. at 1257. The uniformity requirement was a response to the tensions that KORAB V. FINK 19 arose from the intersection of the Articles of Confederation’s Comity Clause and the states’ divergent naturalization laws, which allowed an alien ineligible for citizenship in one state to move to another state, obtain citizenship, and return to the original state as a citizen entitled to all of its privileges and immunities. See Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1, 36 (1824); The Federalist No. 42 (James Madison). The court in Soskin determined that because “the choice by one state to grant or deny . . . benefits to an alien does not require another state to follow suit,” the purpose of the uniformity requirement is not undermined by states’ discretion under the Welfare Reform Act. 353 F.3d at 1257. We agree. Considering the Welfare Reform Act as a whole, it establishes a uniform federal structure for providing welfare benefits to distinct classes of aliens. The entire benefit scheme flows from these classifications, and a state’s limited discretion to implement a plan for a specified category of aliens does not defeat or undermine uniformity. In arguing to the contrary, the dissent ignores that “a state’s exercise of discretion can also effectuate national policy.” Id. at 1255. As the Tenth Circuit explained in Soskin, When a state . . . decides against optional coverage [for certain noncitizens under the Welfare Reform Act], it is addressing the Congressional concern (not just a parochial state concern) that “individual aliens not burden the public benefits system.” 8 U.S.C. § 1601(4). This may be bad policy, but it is Congressional policy; and we review it only to determine whether it is rational. 20 KORAB V. FINK 353 F.3d at 1255. We are not in accord with the dissent’s myopic view that the Welfare Reform Act establishes no federal direction and conclude that Hawai‘i’s discretionary decision to deny coverage to COFA Residents effectuates Congress’s uniform national policy on the treatment of aliens in the welfare context. This reading of the uniformity requirement finds an analog in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Bankruptcy Clause, which similarly calls for uniformity. See U.S. Const. art. I., § 8, cl. 4 (empowering Congress “[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States”). In Hanover National Bank v. Moyses, 186 U.S. 181 (1902), the Court considered a challenge to the 1898 Bankruptcy Act on the ground that its incorporation of divergent state laws failed to “establish uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies” and unconstitutionally “delegate[d] certain legislative powers to the several states.” Id. at 183. The Court held that the incorporation of state laws “is, in the constitutional sense, uniform throughout the United States” because the “general operation of the law is uniform although it may result in certain particulars differently in different states.” Id. at 190. The principle that “uniformity does not require the elimination of any differences among the States” has equal traction here. Ry. Labor Execs.’ Ass’n v. Gibbons, 455 U.S. 457, 469 (1982). As in the bankruptcy context, although the “particulars” are different in different states, the basic operation of the Welfare Reform Act is uniform throughout KORAB V. FINK 21 the United States.7 Stellwagen v. Clum, 245 U.S. 605, 613 (1918) (holding that bankruptcy law may be uniform and yet “may recognize the laws of the state in certain particulars, although such recognition may lead to different results in different states”). The overarching national policy and alienage classifications set out in the Welfare Reform Act have repeatedly been upheld by the federal courts on rationalbasis review. See, e.g., Lewis v. Thompson, 252 F.3d 567, 582–84 (2d Cir. 2001) (upholding the alienage classifications in the Welfare Reform Act); City of Chicago v. Shalala, 189 F.3d 598, 603–08 (7th Cir. 1999) (same); see also Arizona, 132 S. Ct. at 2499 (“Federal law also authorizes States to deny noncitizens a range of public benefits. . . .”).