Opinion ID: 381324
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Scope of the Equal Protection Clause

Text: 14 No state shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 15 U.S.Const. Amend. XIV. It is undisputed that the Fourteenth Amendment due process protections extend to aliens, even if they are in the United States illegally. Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 73 S.Ct. 625, 97 L.Ed. 956 (1953). Similarly, aliens legally residing in the United States are entitled to the equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. E. g., Ambach v. Norwick, 441 U.S. 68, 99 S.Ct. 1589, 60 L.Ed.2d 49 (1979); Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 16 S.Ct. 977, 41 L.Ed. 140 (1896); Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886). Whether aliens illegally residing in the United States are entitled to equal protection of the laws, however, has never been squarely addressed by the Supreme Court. For the reasons stated below, we conclude that all aliens-even those illegally within the territorial boundaries of the United States-are entitled to the equal protection of the laws. 15 16 By its terms the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. We think that aliens illegally within this country are clearly persons within the jurisdiction of the state in which they reside and thus fall under the simple language of the Fourteenth Amendment. The defendants argue that an alien illegally within the territorial boundaries of the United States is not a person within the jurisdiction of the state. In support of this contention appellants cite Leng May Ma v. Barber, 357 U.S. 185, 78 S.Ct. 1072, 2 L.Ed.2d 1246 (1958), a case in which an alien who was not admitted to, but was paroled within, the physical boundaries of the United States was held not to be within the United States under the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act she sought to invoke. 16 As noted by the Leng May Ma Court, the question presented was wholly one of statutory construction. Id. at 187, 78 S.Ct. at 1073. Furthermore, the decision in Leng May Ma turned on presence within the United States; jurisdiction of the United States or of any state was not in issue. We therefore find Leng May Ma inapplicable to the present situation. 17 While the Supreme Court has never explicitly addressed whether the equal protection clause extends to illegal aliens, the Court in Wong Wing, supra, 163 U.S. 228, 16 S.Ct. 977, 41 L.Ed. 140, indicated that the Fourteenth Amendment does afford illegal aliens the equal protection of the laws. In Wong Wing the Court stated: 18 (I)n the case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 369, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 1070, 30 L.Ed. 220, it was said: The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is not confined to the protection of citizens. It says: 'Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.' Those provisions are universal in their application to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or nationality; and the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws. Applying this reasoning to the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, it must be concluded that all persons within the territory of the United States are entitled to the protection guaranteed by those amendments, . . . . 19 Id. at 238, 16 S.Ct. at 981 (emphasis added). 20 Finally, the logic of the Fourteenth Amendment counsels that illegal aliens were intended to be afforded equal protection of the laws. Observing that Texas is not bound to provide an education for aliens residing in their native countries, the defendants argue that it is illogical to require the states to grant educational benefits to aliens illegally within the United States solely because the aliens violated the federal immigration laws and entered the country illegally. This contention, however, fails to acknowledge the jurisdictional predicate of the equal protection clause. In light of this predicate, and in light of the settled recognition of due process rights attaching upon mere illegal entry into the country, 17 we find no merit to this argument. 18 The defendants also urge that it is illogical to allow the federal government to deny benefits of its social programs to illegal aliens, see Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 96 S.Ct. 1883, 48 L.Ed.2d 478 (1976), and then to disallow the states from similarly denying the benefits of their programs. But the federal government may withhold benefits from legal aliens, id., when at the same time the states must afford legal aliens equal protection of the laws, e. g., Graham v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 365, 91 S.Ct. 1848, 29 L.Ed.2d 534 (1971). The illogic perceived by defendants is nothing more than a failure to recognize that the denial of federal benefits rests on the power of the federal government to regulate immigration a power that was not reserved to the states. 19 21 Defendants have advanced no plausible argument suggesting that the equal protection clause does not extend to aliens illegally within the country, and we are similarly unable to formulate any such argument. Indeed, when we consider the ultimate results that would obtain if illegal aliens were not afforded the equal protection of the laws, 20 we are convinced that the Fourteenth Amendment means what it says: All persons within the jurisdiction of a state are entitled to the equal protection of the laws of that state.