Opinion ID: 448149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Zobel v. Williams's Impact on August

Text: 28 In Zobel v. Williams, 457 U.S. 55, 102 S.Ct. 2309, 72 L.Ed.2d 672, the Court considered a 1980 Alaska statute that provided for the distribution of income derived from the state's natural resources to its residents in amounts proportional to the length of their respective residence in the state since Alaskan statehood in 1959. The Zobel plaintiffs challenged the statute as a denial of equal protection and of their right to travel. The Alaska Supreme Court found the statute constitutional. The Supreme Court of the United States found that it violated the Equal Protection Clause; five Justices concluded that the Alaska statute also violated plaintiffs' right to travel.
29 The Court began with the premise that scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is warranted whenever a state distributes benefits unequally. The Court noted that although some distinctions are subject to more rigorous scrutiny than others, it was not forced to determine whether the Alaska dividend-distribution scheme called for enhanced scrutiny because the Alaska statute--which create[d] fixed, permanent distinctions between an ever-increasing number of perpetual classes of concededly bona fide residents, based on how long they ha[d] been in the State, 457 U.S. at 59, 102 S.Ct. at 2312--failed to pass even the minimum test of whether its distinctions rationally furthered a legitimate state purpose. 30 In support of the statutory scheme, Alaska had asserted that it furthered three state purposes, only two of which are pertinent here. First, the state argued that the scheme created a financial incentive for individuals to establish and maintain residence in Alaska. The Court held that the distinction drawn between newer and older residents was simply not rationally related to this purpose. Conceding, arguendo, that granting benefits to residents might provide an incentive for them to remain in Alaska, the Court pointed out that, absent such incentives, longtime residents of the state were less likely to leave the state than were newer residents; hence, the state's alleged goal would more likely be achieved if the larger monetary awards were given to the newer residents, not to the longtime residents. Id. at 61-62 & n. 9, 102 S.Ct. at 2313-14 & n. 9; see also id. at 70, 102 S.Ct. at 2318 (Brennan, J., concurring: Permissible discriminations between persons must bear a rational relationship to their relevant characteristics (emphasis in original).). 31 In addition, the state argued that the classification served to reward citizens for past contributions to the state. The Court held, relying on Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. at 632-33, 89 S.Ct. at 1330-31, and Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U.S. 441, 449-50 & n. 6, 93 S.Ct. 2230, 2235 & n. 6, 37 L.Ed.2d 63 (1973), that rewarding past contributions measured solely by past residence was simply not a legitimate state purpose. 457 U.S. at 63, 102 S.Ct. at 2314. It stated that 32 [i]f the states can make the amount of a cash dividend depend on length of residence, what would preclude varying university tuition on a sliding scale based on years of residence--or even limiting access to finite public facilities, eligibility for student loans, for civil service jobs, or for government contracts by length of domicile? Could states impose different taxes based on length of residence? Alaska's reasoning could open the door to state apportionment of other rights, benefits, and services according to length of residency. It would permit the states to divide citizens into expanding numbers of permanent classes. Such a result would be clearly impermissible. 33 Id. at 64, 102 S.Ct. at 2314-15 (footnotes omitted). The Court concluded that 34 [t]he only apparent justification for the ... program, favoring established residents over new residents, is constitutionally unacceptable. Vlandis v. Kline, supra, [412 U.S.] at 450 [, 93 S.Ct. at 2235]. In our view Alaska has shown no valid state interests which are rationally served by the distinction it makes between citizens who established residence before 1959 and those who became residents since then. 35 Id. at 65, 102 S.Ct. at 2315. Accordingly, the Court held the challenged classification invalid. 36 We regard the Zobel Court's interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause as evincing several doctrinal developments that undercut the holding in August v. Bronstein. First, August concluded that the distinctions drawn by the New York provisions did not violate the Equal Protection Clause because they were not based on duration of residence. We read Zobel, however, as having implications for both durational and nondurational distinctions, for the Alaska statute not only increased the amount of the dividend based on the length of residency, it linked the awards to residence at a particular past time. As the majority pointed out, [t]he Alaska statute also discriminates among long-time residents and even native-born residents, for an Alaska resident who was not such in 1960 because he was not born until 1962 would never be given a dividend for 1960. 457 U.S. at 59-60 n. 5, 102 S.Ct. at 2312 n. 5. We think it implicit in the majority opinion that the award of a dividend based solely upon past residency in the state at a particular time is impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause. And four of the concurring Justices stated explicitly that if the Alaska plan simply discriminated against resident 18-year-olds in favor of all residents of longer duration, those discriminations would surely be constitutionally suspect. Id. at 69, 102 S.Ct. at 2317 (Brennan, J., concurring). Thus, we read Zobel to mean that it is not a legitimate state purpose to confer benefits based solely on past residency at a particular time. 37 Second, the August court concluded that the New York provisions were valid because the bonus points were intended to be a token of gratitude for the wartime service that had been performed by its residents. The Zobel Court held that the objective of rewarding residents for past contributions is not a legitimate state purpose when the measure of such contributions is simply past residency. 38 Third, the August court concluded that the preference accorded veterans who had been New York residents at the time of their entrance into the armed services was too modest to infringe the Equal Protection Clause. August 's de minimis view too has been seriously undermined by Zobel, where the value of each dividend unit, at the time, was $50 per year of residency. In August, the bonus of five points made a difference of nearly 70 places on the eligibility list. If the increment of a mere $50 per year of residency was sufficient to infringe the Equal Protection Clause, the denial of veteran bonus points that might enable their recipient to gain employment and possibly launch an entire career in the New York civil service cannot be regarded as too trivial to infringe that Clause. 39 In light of these rulings in Zobel, we believe that Zobel has so undermined the holding of August that August should no longer be deemed to reflect the Supreme Court's view of the classification implemented by the New York scheme. Accordingly, we conclude that we are free to examine with a fresh eye the equal protection challenge to the New York provisions mounted by the present plaintiffs. See Part II.D.1. below.
40 Five Justices in Zobel also expressed the view that the Alaska statute violated the plaintiffs' constitutional right to travel. Justice Brennan, in a concurring opinion joined by Justices Marshall, Blackmun, and Powell, concluded that the right to travel or, more precisely, the federal interest in free interstate migration, was clearly affected by Alaska's dividend-distribution scheme, 457 U.S. at 66, 102 S.Ct. at 2315, for if every state rewarded residents in proportion to the length of their residency, the mobility so essential to the economic progress of our Nation, and so commonly accepted as a fundamental aspect of our social order, would not long survive, id. at 68, 102 S.Ct. at 2317. These four Justices found that the right to travel, which could be ascribed to any of a number of constitutional provisions, see Part II.D.2. below, and achieve[d] its most forceful expression in the context of equal protection analysis, id. at 67, 102 S.Ct. at 2316, provided an alternative and independent rationale for holding the Alaska statute unconstitutional. 41 In a separate opinion concurring in the Court's judgment, Justice O'Connor concluded that the right to travel, as reflected in the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV of the Constitution, and not equal protection, was the basis on which the Alaska statute should be struck down. 42 Although the Zobel Court expressly rested its invalidation of the Alaska statute on equal protection grounds, and although the five Justices who concluded that the statute violated the right to travel were not unanimous as to the constitutional basis for that conclusion, we believe the concurring opinions also reflect doctrinal development that undercuts August v. Bronstein 's holding that the New York provisions did not violate the right to travel. The only basis expressed by the August court for this ruling was that the bonus awarded under the New York scheme conferred so limited a benefit that it could not realistically be held to penalize the right to travel. 369 F.Supp. at 194. As we observed with respect to the August court's similar ruling on the equal protection challenge, the annual amounts at issue in Zobel were far less significant than the potential deprivations at issue here, i.e., a job and the possible launching of a career. 43 Accordingly, we feel free also to review, without the constraints of August, the plaintiffs' challenge to the New York provisions as an undue burden on the right to travel. 44