Opinion ID: 2371821
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Text: The Court of Appeal also found that plaintiffs have stated a viable claim that section 68130.5 violates the privileges and immunities clause of section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (hereafter, privileges and immunities clause or, sometimes, simply the clause). That clause provides: No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States . . . . Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment gives Congress the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. [4] The Court of Appeal explained that [p]laintiffs' theory, as alleged in the complaint, was that, `By making illegal aliens who possess no lawful domicile in the state of California eligible for in-state tuition rates, while denying this benefit to U.S. citizens whose lawful domicile is outside California, the state of California has denigrated U.S. citizenship and placed U.S. citizen Plaintiffs in a legally disfavored position compared to that of illegal aliens.' It agreed with plaintiffs that section 1623 was an exercise of Congress's power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment's provisions. It concluded, accordingly, that violating section 1623 also violated the privileges and immunities clause. We disagree. Section 1623 was not violated. In contrast to the Court of Appeal's opinion, which seems only to declare that in violating section 1623 the state also violated the privileges and immunities clause, plaintiffs' privileges and immunities clause argument is quite broad. Plaintiffs argue that the clause guarantees the citizen's privilege of being treated no worse than an illegal alien in the distribution of public benefits. They seem to argue that any state action that gives a public benefit to unlawful aliens within the state's borders, even one complying with section 1621, violates the clause unless the state gives the same public benefit to all American citizens. They cite no authority that supports this proposition. Indeed, they cite no case interpreting the clause that compares treatment of unlawful aliens living within a state's borders to treatment of citizens who do not reside in that state. The high court has rarely invoked the clause to strike down a state statute (see Saenz v. Roe (1999) 526 U.S. 489, 511 [143 L.Ed.2d 689, 119 S.Ct. 1518] (dis. opn. of Rehnquist, C. J.)), and it has never said anything remotely supporting plaintiffs' broad interpretation. Indeed, the court has interpreted the clause quite narrowly. (See, e.g., Slaughter-House Cases (1872) 83 U.S. 36 [21 L.Ed. 394].) (21) Plaintiffs note, correctly, that unlike some other constitutional provisions, the privileges and immunities clause applies only to citizens. ( Mathews v. Diaz (1976) 426 U.S. 67, 78, fn. 12 [48 L.Ed.2d 478, 96 S.Ct. 1883].) Thus, aliens, lawful or unlawful, cannot claim benefits under the clause. But no authority suggests the clause prohibits states from ever giving resident aliens (again, lawful or unlawful) benefits they do not also give to all American citizens. The fact that the clause does not protect aliens does not logically lead to the conclusion that it also prohibits states from treating unlawful aliens more favorably than nonresident citizens. (Moreover, were plaintiffs correct in their interpretation of the clause, § 68130.5 would pass even their test. That section does not treat citizens worse than unlawful aliens. It grants the same exemption to all who qualify, whether they are nonresident citizens or resident unlawful aliens.) The clause does operate in some circumstances to prevent states from treating nonresident citizens less favorably than resident citizens. In Saenz v. Roe, supra, 526 U.S. 489, the high court held that a statutory limitation on state welfare benefits for recently arrived resident citizens violates the clause. Contrary to plaintiffs' argument, however, the Saenz case does not support their position. The holding of that case was based on the federal right of interstate travel. ( Saenz v. Roe, supra, at p. 503.) But there is no equivalent federal right for nonresidents to pay reduced in-state tuition while attending a public college or university. The high court has specifically held that states may charge nonresidents, even those who are American citizens, more for attending their public postsecondary institutions than they charge residents. ( Vlandis v. Kline (1973) 412 U.S. 441, 452-453 [37 L.Ed.2d 63, 93 S.Ct. 2230].) Plaintiffs seize on certain language the Saenz court used when describing the right to travel. It described the right as protecting, among other things, the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second State . . . . ( Saenz v. Roe, supra, at p. 500.) Plaintiffs glean from this language a holding that the clause guarantees a citizen's privilege of being treated no worse than an unlawful alien. They read far too much into this language coming from a case that does not involve unlawful aliens. Nothing in the Saenz case supports their expansive interpretation of the clause. (22) It cannot be the case that states may never give a benefit to unlawful aliens without giving the same benefit to all American citizens. In Plyler v. Doe (1982) 457 U.S. 202 [72 L.Ed.2d 786, 102 S.Ct. 2382], the high court held that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits states from denying to undocumented school-age children the free public education that it provides to children who are citizens of the United States or legally admitted aliens. ( Plyler, supra, at p. 205; see also id. at p. 230.) Thus, the high court has held that the Constitution requires states to provide a free public education to some unlawful aliens. We do not believe that the same court would also hold that the privileges and immunities clause requires states that comply with this requirement, and provide a free education to unlawful aliens, also to provide the same free education to all citizens of the entire United States. (23) Congress has addressed the question of postsecondary education benefits for unlawful aliens (§ 1623), but the privileges and immunities clause does not speak to the question. Section 68130.5 does not violate that clause.