Opinion ID: 2000977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Residency at time of induction

Text: The plaintiff was not a resident of Maine when he entered the military service of the United States in June of 1964. If that residency requirement is constitutionally valid, then the plaintiff has no legal right to receive a tax exemption and the decision below was correct. The legitimacy of the governmental interest in veterans' preference legislation is beyond serious judicial dispute. Historically veterans' preference laws have been directed to three principal objectives: (1) to recognize that the experience, discipline, and loyalty that veterans gain in military service are conducive to the better performance of public duties; (2) to encourage citizens to serve their country in time of war and to reward those who, either involuntarily or through enlistment, did so; and (3) to aid in the rehabilitation and location of the veteran whose normal life style has been disrupted by military service. Rios v. Dillman, 5th Cir., 499 F.2d 329, 332 (1974). As stated in Rios v. Dillman , the Equal Protection Clause is not an automatic leveler, nor does it reduce legislative bodies to classificatory impotence. It allows statutory distinctions; and so long as a classification does not turn on suspect criteria (such as durational residency requirements), it requires only a rational justification for the decision to classify. Id. at 335. Residency in the State at the time of entry into military service, as required by 36 M.R.S.A. § 653 for entitlement to tax exemption benefits, is a proper distinguishing factor upon which to base veterans' preferences in rewarding the State's citizens for their patriotism in time of war. The legislative decision to limit the State's grant of tax exemption to those veterans who entered the service while citizens of Maine as a means of encouraging military service in times of war and rewarding such service cannot be considered as arbitrary or capricious, but must be viewed as expressing the State's gratitude to that class of veterans most worthy of its bounty because of their citizenship status at the time they disrupted their economic lifestyle in answering the call to patriotic duty. Providing preferential treatment in tax exemption to the class of veterans who were legal residents of Maine at the time of their entry into military service in time of war bears a rational relationship to the State's legitimate interest in rewarding those who made up the State's share in the war effort. Such restriction cannot realistically be held to infringe upon or penalize the right to travel. August v. Bronstein, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 369 F.Supp. 190 (1974); Langston v. Levitt, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 425 F.Supp. 642 (1977).