Court Opinion

ID: 9428413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:23:41.141067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:13.262917
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
concurring.
In Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618 (1969), the Court held that restricting welfare benefits to those who had resided in a State for at least one year penalized the exercise of the constitutional right to travel from State to State and that because it did so, the discrimination against newly arrived residents had to be justified by a compelling state interest to avoid violating the Equal Protection Clause. Such an interest was not found. It seemed to me at the time, and it seems to me now, that the same result would have obtained in that case without implicating the Equal Protection Clause at all, given the Court’s view of the relationship between the restriction on travel and the State’s justifying interests. As *427Justice Stewart said in concurrence, any purpose “offered in support of a law that so clearly impinges upon the constitutional right of interstate travel must be shown to reflect a compelling governmental interest.” Id., at 643-644. In reaching its conclusion, the Court could as well have said that the proffered state interests did not justify the deterrent effect on the right to travel. Had it found those interests sufficient to warrant the residency requirement, however, the equal protection argument would also have been without force because the reason for insisting upon more than a rational basis for the requirement would have disappeared.
As I understand it, this is essentially the approach followed by the Court today: it first finds that whatever restriction on interstate travel is imposed by the challenged Georgia provision, the State’s interest in enforcing its child support laws is sufficient to justify the restriction. The opinion then finds that the equal protection claim is without substance because there is at least a rational basis for the State’s classification.
I join the Court’s opinion and judgment.