Opinion ID: 1395261
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Durational Residency Requirements under the United States and Alaska Constitutions.

Text: Case law from the United States Supreme Court interpreting the United States Constitution in this area begins with Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969), which struck down a one-year durational residency requirement as a condition for receiving welfare benefits. Since then, there have been a series of cases considering the validity of such requirements. Typically the analysis has focused on the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution and the constitutional right to travel. [5] The relationship between these two constitutional protections, which may not be immediately clear, is that a durational residency requirement does not treat equally those individuals who have recently exercised their constitutional right to travel and those who have not. Individuals who belong to that class of people who have recently migrated to a state are denied certain rights and benefits granted to other residents. In effect, the argument is that a durational residency requirement impermissibly penalizes those who have exercised a constitutional right. In Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274 (1972), Justice Marshall, who wrote the majority decision, suggested that any penalty on a group of people who have recently exercised the constitutional right to travel is impermissible. In response to the argument that some evidence of actual deterrence to travel need be shown, the opinion notes: This view represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the law. It is irrelevant whether disenfranchisement or denial of welfare is the more potent deterrent to travel. Shapiro did not rest upon a finding that denial of welfare actually deterred travel. Nor have other right to travel cases in this Court always relied on the presence of actual deterrence. 405 U.S. at 339-40, 92 S.Ct. at 1001, 31 L.Ed.2d at 283 (footnotes omitted). Furthermore, the opinion concludes that because [d]urational residence laws impermissibly condition and penalize the right to travel by imposing their prohibitions on only those persons who have recently exercised that right, such laws must be measured by a strict equal protection test: they are unconstitutional unless the State can demonstrate that such laws are ` necessary to promote a compelling governmental interest.' 405 U.S. at 342, 92 S.Ct. at 1003, 31 L.Ed.2d at 284 (emphasis in original) (citations omitted). The majority of the Supreme Court agreed in Dunn that the denial of the right to vote for one year was a significant enough penalty that the state would have to justify such a law by showing a counterbalancing compelling state interest. However, the view that this strict test must be used in evaluating all durational residency requirements has never commanded a majority of the Court. A year after Dunn, in Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U.S. 441, 93 S.Ct. 2230, 37 L.Ed.2d 63 (1973), the Court noted in dictum that eligibility for reduced tuition at a state university could be premised on a durational residency requirement. In support of this conclusion, the Supreme Court cited in a footnote ( id. at 452 n. 9, 93 S.Ct. at 2236 n. 9, 37 L.Ed.2d at 72 n. 9) its affirmance of Starns v. Malkerson, 326 F. Supp. 234 (D.C. Minn. 1970), aff'd, 401 U.S. 985, 91 S.Ct. 1231, 28 L.Ed.2d 527 (1971). In Starns, a three-judge district court had concluded that the University of Minnesota could condition payment of in-state tuition on a one-year durational requirement, and specifically rejected the use of the strict scrutiny equal protection analysis. 326 F. Supp. at 238. The following year the Court considered the question of whether free medical care for indigents could be conditioned on a one-year residency requirement. Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250, 94 S.Ct. 1076, 39 L.Ed.2d 306 (1974). The majority opinion, again authored by Justice Marshall, seems to retreat from the Court's earlier unequivocal position in Dunn that any durational residency requirement must be justified by a compelling state interest. The opinion suggests that durational residency requirements only impinge on the right to travel when such a requirement is used by a state to condition the right to receive basic necessities of life or a fundamental political right. 415 U.S. at 259, 94 S.Ct. at 1082, 39 L.Ed.2d at 315. Only because the majority found that medical care was a basic necessity of life did it conclude that a compelling state interest had to be shown to justify the requirement. Finally, in 1975, the Court sustained an Iowa statute that conditioned divorce on one year of residency in the state. Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975). Justices Marshall and Brennan noted in a dissenting opinion: [t]he Court ... has not only declined to apply the compelling interest test to this case, it has conjured up possible justifications for the State's restriction in a manner much more akin to the lenient standard we have in the past applied in analyzing equal protection challenges to business regulations. 419 U.S. at 420, 95 S.Ct. at 568, 42 L.Ed.2d at 553 (citations omitted). To summarize, in the federal courts it now appears that laws which deny or restrict certain benefits to new residents will only be subjected to strict scrutiny when they deny basic necessities of life or some fundamental political right. In retrospect, one may question whether Shapiro and its progeny are right to travel cases at all, because denial of welfare benefits or political rights to any class of people, whether newly arrived migrants or some other class, would always seem to justify strict scrutiny. A review of our durational residency cases can be easily summarized. We have never used anything but strict scrutiny equal protection analysis. [6] In Hicklin v. Orbeck, 565 P.2d 159 (Alaska 1977), rev'd on other grounds, 437 U.S. 518, 98 S.Ct. 2482, 57 L.Ed.2d 397 (1978), which was decided some two years after Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975), we noted that [w]e have never used this `basic necessities' reasoning. 565 P.2d at 163. As recently as Castner v. Homer, 598 P.2d 953 (Alaska 1979), we used strict scrutiny to analyze a city ordinance imposing a one-year durational residency requirement on the right to run for an elective city office. Although we found a compelling state interest, and sustained the ordinance in Castner (598 P.2d at 957), it is obvious that few durational residency requirements could withstand such an analysis. In light of our holding in State v. Erickson, 574 P.2d 1 (Alaska 1978), we believe that it is now appropriate to reexamine our conclusion, as expressed in our prior decisions, that all durational residency requirements must necessarily trigger the highest level of equal protection scrutiny. In Erickson, we noted our prior dissatisfaction with the two-tiered model of equal protection used in federal constitutional analysis. We concluded that a single test would be more appropriate, and described the functioning of that test in the following terms: Initially, we must look to the purpose of the statute, viewing the legislation as a whole, and the circumstances surrounding it. It must be determined that this purpose is legitimate, that it falls within the police power of the state. Examining the means used to accomplish the legislative objectives and the reasons advanced therefore, the court must then determine whether the means chosen substantially further the goals of the enactment. Finally, the state interest in the chosen means must be balanced against the nature of the constitutional right involved. 574 P.2d at 12 (footnotes omitted). We noted that where federal constitutional questions were present which involved a suspect class or fundamental right, we would still be bound to use a test at least the equivalent in severity as the compelling governmental interest or strict scrutiny test used by the United States Supreme Court. When federal strict scrutiny was not required, however, we would be free to adopt our own test in gauging the importance of the right to equal treatment under the Alaska constitution. Id. at 11-12. We conclude now that durational residency requirements should be measured against the test discussed in Erickson. When a law conditions the receipt of some right or benefit upon a period of residency, we will balance the importance of the denial of the right or benefit against those legitimate government objectives which make it justifiable to classify people on the basis of their length of residency. As we stated in Erickson, a burden will be placed on the state to show that a classification has a fair and substantial relation to a legitimate governmental objective, and that a greater or lesser burden to make such a showing will be based on the nature of the right or benefit involved. State v. Erickson, 574 P.2d 1, 11-12 (Alaska 1978). Freedom from disparate taxation is not a federally protected fundamental right for the purpose of equal protection analysis under the fourteenth amendment. [7] Therefore, we shall analyze the tax law under our general standard of equal protection discussed above.