Opinion ID: 1712936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Arbitrary Age DiscriminationThe Manuel Decision

Text: In Manuel v. State, 95-2189 (La.7/2/96), 692 So.2d 320 (on reh'g), this court upheld, over constitutional age discrimination arguments almost identical to those raised in this case, the legislative acts raising the minimum drinking age to twenty-one years. The Louisiana Constitution's prohibition of arbitrary age discrimination must be tempered with the concept that the young and the old can be given preferential treatment. Lee Hargrave, The Louisiana Constitution: A Reference Guide 25 (1991)(noting that even the Constitution draws several lines based on age). In determining a violation of this constitutional prohibition of age discrimination, this court has adopted an intermediate level of scrutiny. The Manuel decision explained this standard, as follows: La. Const. art. I, § 3 sets up a spectrum for analyzing equal protection challenges based on discriminatory classifications.... . . . . In the middle of the spectrum are laws that classify persons on the basis of the six grounds enumerated in the third sentence of Section 3 [one of which is age]. A law containing a statutory classification based on any of the six enumerated grounds does not enjoy the usual presumption of constitutionality. Moreover, with that reversal of the ordinary presumption of constitutionality comes a reversal of the rule that ordinarily places the burden of proof on the party seeking a declaration of unconstitutionality.... . . . . .... Because age classification is specifically enumerated in Section 3 and because an age classification must have a nonarbitrary basis, the burden of proof is on the proponent of constitutionality to show that the statute establishing such a classification substantially furthers an appropriate governmental purpose. 95-2189 (on reh'g) at pp. 4-5, 692 So.2d at 339-340 (emphasis in original). In Manuel, we applied this standard of middle level scrutiny to statutes that prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages to persons eighteen to twenty years old, as well as the purchase and public possession by such persons. Stating that the State is assigned the burden of justifying such a classification by showing that it substantially furthers an appropriate state purpose, we noted that the principal governmental purpose of the discriminatory statutes was improving highway safety. We acknowledged as undisputed that improving highway safety is an important governmental purpose and focused the analysis on whether the selected method substantially furthered that purpose. We explained that the term substantially furthered means the governmental purpose must be a substantial, as opposed to an incidental, reason for the classification. 95-2189 (on reh'g) at p. 6, 692 So.2d at 340 n. 5. While the opinion on original hearing had focused on Louisiana data and on comparing three-year age groupings, we held on rehearing that the proper focus was to compare licensed drivers in the eighteen-to-twenty age group with the group of licensed drivers who were twenty-one and over. The issue thus framed was whether drawing the line at twenty-one substantially furthered the State's significant interest of promoting highway safety. Explaining our focus on the discrimination against adults in the lowest range of adulthood, we stated: [T]he challenged statutes focus on the problem of youthful drinking and driving. If youthful drinking and driving is a substantial problem in highway safety and if increasing the minimum drinking age is an appropriate means of attacking that problem, the minimum drinking age can only be increased at the lowest level the eighteen, nineteen and twenty-year-old group. Thus, the statutes do not single out the members of this three-year age group for unequal treatment as compared to other three-year age groups. This is the only age group that can be affected by a three-year increase in the minimum drinking age. 95-2189 (on reh'g) at p. 8, 692 So.2d at 341 n. 7 (emphasis in original). We concluded that there was a sufficient relationship between the discriminatory classification resulting from raising the minimum drinking age and the statutory objective of reducing youthful drinking and driving to improve highway safety, primarily relying on national statistical data, as corroborated by experience, logic and common sense. Based on experience, we reviewed national highway statistics which established, among other things, that the disadvantaged group (drivers from eighteen to twenty years old) was involved in twice as many accidents per capita as the general group of licensed drivers and that Louisiana ranked higher than forty-six other states in the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities involving drivers under twenty-one. Based on logic and common sense, we reasoned that the increase in the drinking age establishes a [p]rohibition of drinking by persons who are proportionately the most dangerous group of drinking drivers and therefore has to increase highway safety substantially, as opposed to incidentally. 95-2189 (on reh'g) at p. 10, 692 So.2d at 342. We quoted a seasoned state trooper's apt remark that the eighteen-to-twenty-year-old age group is not only inexperienced at driving but is also inexperienced at drinking. 95-2189 (on reh'g) at p. 8, 692 So.2d at 341. We further took judicial notice that all of the other states had enacted similar legislation raising the drinking age to twenty-one years to comply with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, 23 U.S.C. § 158, observing: Admittedly, those legislative decisions are not subject to the same equal protection scrutiny as the Louisiana statutes. Nevertheless, unanimous utilization of this approach to the problem is a significant indication that this approach `substantially furthers [the] appropriate state purpose ....' 95-2189 (on reh'g) at p. 8, 692 So.2d at 341.