Opinion ID: 417765
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutionality of Facility Placement and $1000 Ceiling

Text: 9 Collins contends that the County's offer of residence in the care facility amounts to an involuntary commitment which violates his protected liberty interest and his right to due process. He argues that he lacks any real capacity to reject the offer because of his lack of alternative sources of support. Collins argues that his right to personal liberty protected by the fourteenth amendment is infringed by the restrictions to which he would be subjected at the care facility. 3 10 Collins cites a line of cases in which the United States Supreme Court has found liberty interests in: a teacher's choice to teach a foreign language, Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 400, 43 S.Ct. 625, 627, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923); parents' choice to send children to private schools, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534, 45 S.Ct. 571, 573, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925); a married person's right to obtain contraceptives, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); and a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 153, 93 S.Ct. 705, 726, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). The right to live at home and not be forced into the county facility, Collins asserts, is a fundamental right secured by the Constitution. 11 Collins contends that where certain 'fundamental rights' are involved, the Court has held that regulation limiting these rights may be justified only by a 'compelling state interest,' and that legislative enactments must be narrowly drawn to express only the legitimate state interests at stake. Roe v. Wade, supra, 410 U.S. at 155, 93 S.Ct. at 727 (citations omitted). Collins also argues the county ordinance serves no legitimate governmental interest. 12 The County maintains that its offer of placement in the facility was not an involuntary commitment. The liberty interest protected by the fourteenth amendment does not include the right to state-support of a chosen lifestyle. For this proposition, the County relies on Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297, 316-18, 100 S.Ct. 2671, 2687-2688, 65 L.Ed.2d 784 (1980) in which the Supreme Court held that although a woman's right to choose to have an abortion is a protected liberty interest, the government is under no obligation to finance a woman's exercise of that right. Thus, the County reasons that even if Collins has a liberty interest in his chosen lifestyle he is not entitled to government funds to support that lifestyle. We agree. 13 The Supreme Court in Harris v. McRae, supra, 448 U.S. at 316, 100 S.Ct. at 2687 held that 14 although government may not place obstacles in the path of a woman's exercise of her freedom of choice, it need not remove those not of its own creation. Indigency falls in the latter category. The financial constraints that restrict an indigent woman's ability to enjoy the full range of constitutionally protected freedom of choice are the product not of governmental restrictions on access to abortions, but rather of her indigency. 15 As in Harris v. McRae, the government here does not seek to interfere with Collins' exercise of his freedom to choose to live alone. Instead, his indigency has removed that option. The government seeks only to discharge its statutory duty to provide for Collins' needs. We find that the county ordinance authorizing the County to offer residence in the care facility does not impinge a fundamental liberty interest. The Court in Harris v. McRae, supra, 448 U.S. at 317-18, 100 S.Ct. at 2688-89 stated: 16 Although the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause affords protection against unwarranted government interference with freedom of choice in the context of certain personal decisions, it does not confer an entitlement to such funds as may be necessary to realize all the advantages of that freedom. 17 The Court further stated that the liberty interest protected in Griswold v. Connecticut, supra, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, supra, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 did not impose on the government an affirmative duty to finance those rights. 18 We affirm the district court's holding that the County has not violated plaintiff's constitutional right to liberty by refusing to subsidize his preferred living arrangements, even though such a violation might have occurred had they taken affirmative steps to interfere with his liberty by forcing him to reside in the County Care Facility. The county ordinance authorizing the County to offer placement in the care facility does not violate constitutional principles. 19 Collins further claims that section 6(8) of the county ordinance 4 which limits the amount of benefits to which he is entitled to $1,000.00 per year, is constitutionally deficient and contrary to state law. The district court held that the $1,000.00 ceiling was not an absolute limitation of benefits because the ordinance provides that a person requiring additional assistance is offered placement in the care facility. 20 The Board is clearly within statutory authority in setting the $1,000.00 ceiling. Iowa Code Sec. 252.27 (1982) states in part that [t]he amount of assistance issued shall be determined by standards of assistance established by the board of supervisors. Section 6(8) does not violate state law; nor is it offensive to the Constitution. For the reasons set forth above we affirm the district court's ruling that the $1,000.00 ceiling is constitutionally inoffensive.