Opinion ID: 201955
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Tenth Amendment Claim

Text: 27 Finally, Medeiros maintains that he alleged a viable Tenth Amendment claim: that the Atlantic Coastal Act in general and in particular its provision permitting the Secretary of Commerce to impose a moratorium on any member State that refuses to adopt a necessary term of an IFMP constitutes an impermissible commandeering by the federal government of the states' legislative prerogatives. See, e.g., Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 924, 117 S.Ct. 2365, 138 L.Ed.2d 914 (1997) (striking down Brady Act provision which required state law enforcement officers to assist in national instant background checks for firearm sales); New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 168, 112 S.Ct. 2408, 120 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992) (striking down provision requiring states to take title to radioactive waste as part of a federal regulatory initiative). 6 In other words, Medeiros intimates, the mere threat of a moratorium has compelled Rhode Island, against its will, to adopt the 100/500 limitation in Amendment 3. 28 The defendants counter that the instant claim must be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds since private citizens like Medeiros lack standing to assert Tenth Amendment claims, which are to be prosecuted (if at all) by the state. The defendants note as well that Rhode Island voluntarily has endorsed and continues to endorse the policy underlying the enactment of the 100/500 limit, see R.I. Gen. Laws § 20-8-7 (requiring that all state officials take any action necessary to comply with the ACFCMA compact), and that even if the Atlantic Coastal Act or its moratorium were to be invalidated on Tenth Amendment grounds, Rhode Island voluntarily would elect to leave Regulation 15.18 in place, and therefore the harm incurred by Medeiros would not be redressed. In the alternative, the defendants contend that, even if Medeiros did have standing, the Atlantic Coastal Act does not constitute an impermissible commandeering of Rhode Island's legislative prerogatives, but rather a permissible program of cooperative federalism in which the federal and state governments have acted voluntarily in tandem to achieve a common policy objective. See New York, 505 U.S. at 167, 112 S.Ct. 2408. 29 We resolve the threshold jurisdictional issue prior to reaching the merits of the Medeiros claim. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 101-02, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998) (noting that court should not reach merits unless first assured that it has jurisdiction; to assume jurisdiction arguendo would result in an advisory opinion); Parella v. Ret. Bd. of the R.I. Employees' Ret. Sys., 173 F.3d 46, 53-54 (1st Cir.1999). We conclude, as did the district court, that Medeiros lacks standing to present a Tenth Amendment claim. 30 The United States Supreme Court has held that private citizens lack standing to maintain Tenth Amendment claims. See Tenn. Elec. Power Co. v. Tenn. Valley Auth., 306 U.S. 118, 144, 59 S.Ct. 366, 83 L.Ed. 543 (1939) [hereinafter:  TVA ] (As we have seen there is no objection to the Authority's operations by the states, and, if this were not so, the appellants, absent the states or their officers, have no standing in this suit to raise any question under the amendment.). Medeiros incorrectly classifies the TVA holding as dictum. The Court dismissed the Tenth Amendment claim after analyzing both the standing issue and the merits, and hence, the former holding is an alternative ground, rather than obiter dictum. See California v. United States, 438 U.S. 645, 689 n. 10, 98 S.Ct. 2985, 57 L.Ed.2d 1018 (1978); Woods v. Interstate Realty Co., 337 U.S. 535, 537, 69 S.Ct. 1235, 93 L.Ed. 1524 (1949); Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 216 F.3d 1180, 1189 (D.C.Cir.2000). Accordingly, the Supreme Court's explicit holding in TVA, which has never been reversed, remains binding precedent. 31 Medeiros counters that the Supreme Court's subsequent discussion of the Tenth Amendment in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 112 S.Ct. 2408, 120 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992), undermines TVA: 32 The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals. State sovereignty is not just an end in itself: Rather, federalism secures to citizens the liberties that derive from the diffusion of sovereign power. 33 Id. at 181, 112 S.Ct. 2408 (citation omitted). Medeiros suggests that this language is to be read as abrogating the principle that only the states' interests are protected by the Tenth Amendment, and if individual citizens also have interests, they must have standing in order to protect them in court. We do not agree. 34 First, as the New York decision does not mention TVA, it cannot be construed as expressly overruling it. 7 Moreover, even if the Medeiros reading of the passage were plausible and we were to conclude that its reasoning is inconsistent with TVA, we would remain bound to apply TVA. If a precedent of [the Supreme] Court has a direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to [the Supreme] Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions. Rodriquez de Quijas v. Shearson/Am. Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989). The TVA decision has direct application to the instant case, in that it involved private parties attempting to assert Tenth Amendment claims, whereas New York did not. Rather, since New York involved a claim asserted only by a state, the question of private-party standing under the Tenth Amendment was never at issue; indeed, the word standing was never mentioned. 35 Moreover, the Medeiros interpretation of New York — as holding that individuals must have standing to bring Tenth Amendment claims in court — is by no means inarguable. The specific focus of the above-quoted discussion was whether a state could assert a Tenth Amendment commandeering claim where a previous administration of that state had initially acquiesced in the commandeering, or whether the Tenth Amendment claim had been waived. In responding that a state could never consent to an unconstitutional commandeering, the Supreme Court noted that the Amendment protects the individual citizens of the state generally by diffusing power among sovereigns, and therefore the State cannot waive a commandeering violation which in fact impinges upon that interest. New York, 505 U.S. at 182, 112 S.Ct. 2408. 36 One might suppose that this proposition leads inevitably to the conclusion that, if a State refuses to oppose an unlawful commandeering, an individual citizen is the only remaining party with an interest and incentive to vindicate that violation, and therefore the New York Court necessarily must have envisioned that the private citizen would have standing to bring suit on the Tenth Amendment claim. While this is one plausible interpretation, it is not an inexorable one. Rather, the Court may simply have intended that the State represents the interests of its citizens in general, and, if it refuses to prosecute a viable Tenth Amendment claim, the citizens of that state may have recourse to local political processes to effect change in the state's policy of acquiescence. If the Tenth Amendment is not waivable, individuals could petition state officials for redress at any time. We need not determine which interpretation is more likely, but only that it is at least debatable whether, or to what extent, the New York decision undermines the TVA holding. 37 Medeiros also notes that the Court recently granted a writ of certiorari for the purpose of deciding this very issue, see Pierce County, Washington v. Guillen, 537 U.S. 129, 123 S.Ct. 720, 154 L.Ed.2d 610 (2003), and though it ultimately declined to reach the question, id. at 148 n. 10, 123 S.Ct. 720, we should interpret this development as an indication of the Court's readiness to overturn TVA. We can draw no such inference on the basis of this development. Certiorari could mean either that the Court is interested in reexamining and/or overruling TVA, or that it merely intends to reaffirm TVA in the face of a circuit split on the issue. Those circuit court decisions which have held that private citizens possess standing to bring Tenth Amendment claims are problematic. For instance, the Eleventh Circuit's precedent commenced without any reference to TVA, and subsequent panels have expressed concern as to whether the omission has resulted in the perpetuation of a circuit precedent inconsistent with TVA. See, e.g., Dillard v. Baldwin County Comm'rs, 225 F.3d 1271, 1283 & n. 1 (11th Cir.2000) (Barkett, J., concurring). In addition, the Seventh Circuit has permitted a state police officer to maintain a Tenth Amendment claim that a federal regulation interfered with the officer's state law enforcement job by prohibiting persons convicted of domestic violence crimes from possessing guns, but in such specialized circumstances, it is debatable whether the plaintiff is acting in behalf of the state or simply as a private citizen. See Gillespie v. City of Indianapolis, 185 F.3d 693, 702-04 (7th Cir.1999); cf. Lomont v. O'Neill, 285 F.3d 9, 13 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.2002) (noting in dicta that TVA likely would preclude Tenth Amendment standing to a purely private citizen, yet holding that a county sheriff and a chief of police possessed standing to assert a commandeering claim). In contrast, many courts explicitly have held that TVA, until overruled, bars Tenth Amendment claims by private citizens. See, e.g., United States v. Parker, 362 F.3d 1279, 1284-85 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 88, 160 L.Ed.2d 124 (2004); City of Roseville v. Norton, 219 F.Supp.2d 130, 147-48 (D.D.C.2002), aff'd, 348 F.3d 1020 (D.C.Cir.2003), cert. denied sub nom. Citizens for Safer Cmtys., 541 U.S. 974, 124 S.Ct. 1888, 158 L.Ed.2d 470 (2004); Vt. Assembly of Home Health Agencies v. Shalala, 18 F.Supp.2d 355, 370-71 (D.Vt.1998). 38 We are particularly reluctant to second-guess the continuing viability of TVA regarding so complex an issue of constitutional law. If and when the Supreme Court revisits TVA, it may be confronted with the question as to how a private citizen proceeds to establish a Tenth Amendment commandeering claim where the State itself has acquiesced in the federal-state arrangement. For example, if Medeiros were to possess standing, the question might arise as to whether he should be allowed discovery to determine why Rhode Island officials initially adopted Regulation 15.18, or why those officials reinstated the regulation with dispatch following its brief repeal in 2000. On the other hand, if the State cannot acquiesce in a commandeering regime, see New York, 505 U.S. at 182, 112 S.Ct. 2408, its actual motivation in enacting Regulation 15.18 might be immaterial. Finally, if private citizens possess standing to prosecute Tenth Amendment claims, it is not difficult to envision a substantial increase in such litigation before the federal courts. Given that potential, the prudential and precedential principle enunciated in Rodriquez de Quijas seems particularly apt. In the event TVA is no longer good law, it should be for the Supreme Court explicitly to overrule it. 39 Accordingly, we affirm the district court holding that Medeiros lacks standing to pursue a Tenth Amendment claim that the Atlantic Coastal Act constitutes an unconstitutional commandeering of the Rhode Island legislative processes. 40 Affirmed.