Court Opinion

ID: 9427379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:20:32.518654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:06.690759
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Brenhan,
with whom Me. Justice White and Mr. Justice Marshall join, dissenting.
Alabama creates by statute an area of “police jurisdiction” encompassing all adjoining territory within three miles of the corporate limits of cities with a population of 6,000 or more. Within this police jurisdiction Alabama law provides that “ [ordinances of a city . . . enforcing police or sanitary regulations and prescribing fines and penalties for violations thereof shall have force and effect Ala. Code § 11-40-10 (1975).1 Alabama law provides in addition that a city “may fix and collect licenses for any business, trade or profession done within the police jurisdiction of such city . . . provided, that the amount of such licenses shall not be more than one half the amount charged and collected as a license for like business, trade or profession done within the corporate limits of such city . . . Ala. Code § 11-51-91 (1975).2 At the time this lawsuit commenced on August 7, 1973, Alabama vested jurisdiction of the prosecution of breaches of municipal ordinances occurring within a police jurisdiction in a recorder's court,3 the recorder being elected by a city’s board of commissioners. Ala. Code, Tit. 37, § 584 (1958).4
*80Appellants are the Holt Civic Club and seven residents of the unincorporated community of Holt, which lies within the police jurisdiction of the city of Tuscaloosa, Ala.5 Although appellants are thus subject to Tuscaloosa’s police and sanitary ordinances, to the jurisdiction of its municipal court,6 and to the requirements of its licensing fees, appellants are not permitted to vote in Tuscaloosa’s municipal elections, or to participate in or to initiate Tuscaloosa’s referenda or recall elections. Appellants claim that this disparity “infringes on their constitutional right (under the due process and equal protection clauses) to a voice in their government.” Complaint ¶ 11. The three-judge District Court below dismissed appellants’ equal protection and due process claims.7 Without reaching the due process issue, I would reverse the judgment of the District Court and hold that appellants’ equal protection claim should have been sustained.
It is, of course, established that once a “franchise is granted to the electorate, lines may not be drawn which are inconsistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections, 383 U. S. 663, 665 (1966). Because “statutes distributing the franchise *81constitute the foundation of our representative society/7 Kramer v. Union Free School Dist., 395 U. S. 621, 626 (1969), we have subjected such statutes to “exacting judicial scrutiny.77 Id., at 628.8 Indeed, “if a challenged statute grants the right to vote to some citizens and denies the franchise to others, 'the Court must determine whether the exclusions are necessary to promote a compelling state interest.7 [Kramer v. Union Free School Dist., 395 U. S.,] at 627 (emphasis added).77 Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330, 337 (1972). The general rule is that “whenever a state or local government decides to select persons by popular election to perform governmental functions, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that each qualified voter must be given an equal opportunity to participate in that election . . . .” Hadley v. Junior College Dist., 397 U. S. 50, 56 (1970).
Our decisions before today have held that bona fide residency requirements are an acceptable means of distinguishing qualified from unqualified voters. Dunn v. Blumstein, supra, at 343. The Court holds today, however, that the restriction of the franchise to those residing within the corporate limits of the city of Tuscaloosa is such a bona fide residency requirement. The Court rests this holding on the conclusion that “a government unit may legitimately restrict the right to participate in its political processes to those who reside within its borders.77 Ante, at 68-69. The Court thus insulates the Alabama statutes challenged in this case from the strict judicial scrutiny ordinarily applied to state laws distributing the franchise. In so doing, the Court cedes to geography a talis-manic significance contrary to the theory and meaning of our past voting-rights cases.
We have previously held that when statutes distributing the franchise depend upon residency requirements, state-law *82characterizations of residency are not controlling for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e. g., Evans v. Cornman, 398 U. S. 419 (1970); Carrington v. Rash, 380 U. S. 89 (1965). Indeed, Dunn v. Blumstein, supra, was careful to exempt from strict judicial scrutiny only bona fide residency requirements that were "appropriately defined and uniformly applied.” 405 U. S., at 343. The touchstone for determining whether a residency requirement is “appropriately defined” derives from the purpose of such requirements, which, as stated in Dunn, is “to preserve the basic conception of a political community.” Id., at 344. At the heart of our basic conception of a “political community,” however, is the notion of a reciprocal relationship between the process of government and those who subject themselves to that process by choosing to live within the area of its authoritative application.9 Cf. Avery v. Midland County, 390 U. S. 474, 485 (1968). Statutes such as those challenged in this case, which fracture this relationship by severing the connection between the process of government and those who are governed in the places of their residency, thus undermine the very purposes which have led this Court in the past to approve the application of bona fide residency requirements.
There is no question but that the residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction are governed by the city.10 Under Ala*83bama law, a municipality exercises “governing” and “lawmaking” power over its police jurisdiction. City of Homewood v. Wofford Oil Co., 232 Ala. 634, 637, 169 So. 288, 290 (1936). Residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction are sub*84ject to license fees exacted by the city, as well as to the city’s police and sanitary regulations, which can be enforced through penal sanctions effective in the city’s municipal court. See Birmingham v. Lake, 243 Ala. 367, 372, 10 So. 2d 24, 28 (1942). The Court seems to imply, however, that residents of the police jurisdiction are not governed enough to be included within the political community of Tuscaloosa, since they are not subject to Tuscaloosa’s powers of eminent domain, zoning, *85or ad valorem taxation. Ante, at 73 n. 8. But this position is sharply contrary to our previous holdings. In Kramer v. Union Free School Dist., 395 U. S. 621 (1969), for example, we held that residents of a school district who neither owned nor leased taxable real property located within the district, or were not married to someone who did, or were not parents or guardians of children enrolled in a local district school, nevertheless were sufficiently affected by the decisions of the local school board to make the denial of their franchise in local school board elections a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Similarly, we held in Cipriano v. City of Houma, 395 U. S. 701 (1969), that a Louisiana statute limiting the franchise in municipal utility system revenue bond referenda to those who were “property taxpayers” was unconstitutional because all residents of the municipality were affected by the operation of the utility system. See Phoenix v. Kolodziejski, 399 U. S. 204 (1970).
The residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction are vastly more affected by Tuscaloosa’s decisionmaking processes than were the plaintiffs in either Kramer or Cipriano affected by the decisionmaking processes from which they had been unconstitutionally excluded. Indeed, under Alabama law Tuscaloosa’s authority to create and enforce police and sanitary regulations represents an extensive reservoir of power “to prevent, an anticipation of danger to come, . . . and in so doing to curb and restrain the individual tendency.” Gilchrist Drug Co. v. Birmingham, 234 Ala. 204, 208, 174 So. 609, 612 (1937). See Cooper v. Town of Valley Head, 212 Ala. 125, 126, 101 So. 874, 875 (1924). A municipality, for example, may use its police powers to regulate, or even to ban, common professions and businesses. “In the exertion and application of the police power there is to be observed the sound distinction as to useful and harmless trades, occupations and businesses and as to businesses, occupations and trades recognized as hurtful to public morals, public safety, *86productive of disorder or injurious to public good. In applying it to the class last mentioned it may be exerted to destroy.” Chappell v. Birmingham, 236 Ala. 363, 365, 181 So. 906, 907 (1938). The Court today does not explain why being subjected to the authority to exercise such extensive power does not suffice to bring the residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction within the political community of the city. Nor does the Court in fact provide any standards for determining when those subjected to extraterritorial municipal legislation will have been “governed enough” to trigger the protections of the Equal Protection Clause.
The criterion of geographical residency relied upon by the Court is of no assistance in this analysis. Just as a State may not fracture the integrity of a political community by restricting the franchise to property taxpayers, so it may not use geographical restrictions on the franchise to accomplish the same end. This is the teaching of Evans v. Cornman. Evans held, contrary to the conclusion of the Maryland Court of Appeals, that those who lived on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) enclave within Montgomery County were residents of Maryland for purposes of the franchise. Our decision rested on the grounds that inhabitants of the enclave were “treated as state residents in the census and in determining congressional apportionment,” 398 U. S., at 421, and that “residents of the NIH grounds are just as interested in and connected with electoral decisions as they were prior to 1953 when the area came under federal jurisdiction and as are their neighbors who live off the enclave.” Id., at 426. Residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction are assuredly as “interested in and connected with” the electoral decisions of the city as were the inhabitants of the NIH enclave in the electoral decisions of Maryland. True, inhabitants of the enclave lived “within the geographical boundaries of the State of Maryland,” but appellants in this case similarly reside within the geographical boundaries of Tus*87caloosa’s police jurisdiction. They live within the perimeters of the city’s “legislative powers.” City of Leeds v. Town of Moody, 294 Ala. 496, 501, 319 So. 2d 242, 246 (1975).
The criterion of geographical residency is thus entirely arbitrary when applied to this case. It fails to explain why, consistently with the Equal Protection Clause, the “government unit” which may exclude from the franchise those who reside outside of its geographical boundaries should be composed of the city of Tuscaloosa rather than of the city together with its police jurisdiction. It irrationally distinguishes between two classes of citizens, each with equal claim to residency (insofar as that can be determined by domicile or intention or other similar criteria), and each governed by the city of Tuscaloosa in the place of their residency.
The Court argues, however, that if the franchise were extended to residents of the city’s police jurisdiction, the franchise must similarly be extended to all those indirectly affected by the city’s actions. This- is a simple non sequitur. There is a crystal-clear distinction between those who reside in Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction, and who are therefore subject to that city’s police and sanitary ordinances, licensing fees, and the jurisdiction of its municipal court, and those who reside in neither the city nor its police jurisdiction, and who are thus merely affected by the indirect impact of the city’s decisions. This distinction is recognized in Alabama law, cf. Roberson v. City of Montgomery, 285 Ala. 421, 233 So. 2d 69 (1970), and is consistent with, if not mandated by, the very conception of a political community underlying constitutional recognition of bona fide residency requirements.
Appellants’ equal protection claim can be simply expressed: The State cannot extend the franchise to some citizens who are governed by municipal government in the places of their residency, and withhold the franchise from others similarly situated, unless this distinction is necessary to promote a compelling state interest. No such interest has been articu*88lated in this case. Neither Tuscaloosa’s interest in regulating “activities carried on just beyond [its] 'city limit’ signs,” ante, at 74, nor Alabama’s interest in providing municipal services to the unincorporated communities surrounding its cities, ibid., are in any way inconsistent with the extension of the franchise to residents of Tuscaloosa’s police jurisdiction. Although a great many States may presently authorize the exercise of extraterritorial lawmaking powers by a municipality,11 and although the Alabama statutes involved in this case may be of venerable age, neither of these factors, as Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533 (1964), made clear, can serve to justify practices otherwise impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Therefore, since the statutes challenged by appellants distinguish among otherwise qualified voters without a compelling justification, I would reverse the judgment of the District Court and hold the challenged statutes to be in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

 At the time this lawsuit commenced, this statute was codified at Ala. Code, Tit. 37, § 9 (1958).

 At the time appellants filed their complaint, this statute was found at Ala. Code, Tit. 37, §733 (1958). Minor changes in wording were effected during recodification.

 Alabama Code, Tit. 37, § 585 (1958) provided:
“It shall be the duty of the recorder to keep an office in the city, and hear and determine all cases for the breach of the ordinances and by-laws of the city that may be brought before him, and he shall malee report, at least once a month, of all fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed by him, or by any councilman in his stead. Such recorder is especially vested *80with and may exercise in the city and within the police jurisdiction thereof, full jurisdiction in criminal and quasi criminal matters, and may impose the penalties prescribed by ordinance for the violation of ordinances and by-laws of the city, and shall have the power of an ex-officio justice of the peace, except in civil matters. . . .”

 On December 27, 1973, recorder’s courts were abolished in Alabama and replaced by municipal courts having virtually identical jurisdiction. See Ala. Code § 12 — 14r-l (1975). Municipal judges “shall be appointed and vacancies filled by the governing body of the municipality . . . .” Ala. Const., Arndt. No. 328, § 6.065.

 Tuscaloosa contains 65,773 residents, while the police jurisdiction surrounding the city contains between 16,000 and 17,000 residents. See App. 17-19.

 See n. 4, supra.

 The court granted appellants leave “to further amend within 45 days to specify particular ordinances of the City of Tuscaloosa which are claimed to deprive plaintiffs of liberty or property.”

 “[Sjtatutes structuring local government units receive no less exacting an examination merely because the state legislature is fairly elected. See Avery v. Midland County, 390 U. S. 474, 481 n. 6 (1968).” Kramer v. Union Free School Dist., 395 U. S., at 628 n. 10.

 The Court apparently accepts this proposition by strongly implying, ante, at 73 n. 8, that “a situation in which a city has annexed outlying territory in all but name, and is exercising precisely the same governmental powers over residents of surrounding unincorporated territory as it does over those residing within its corporate limits” would not “pass constitutional muster.”

 Appellants have included in their brief an unchallenged addendum listing the ordinances of the city of Tuscaloosa, Code of Tuscaloosa (1962, Supplemented 1975), that have application in its police jurisdiction:

“Licenses:

4r-l ambulance
9-4, 9-18, 9-33 bottle dealers
*8319-1 junk dealers
20-5 general business license ordinance
20-67 florists
20-102 hotels, motels, etc.
20-163 industry

“Buildings:

10-1 inspection service enforces codes
10-10 regulation of dams
10-21 Southern Standard Building Code adopted
10-25 building permits
13-3 National Electrical Code adopted
14-23 Fire Prevention Code adopted
14r-65 regulation of incinerators
14r-81 discharge of cinders
Chapter 21A mobile home parks
25-1 Southern Standard Plumbing Code adopted
33-79 disposal of human wastes
33-114, 118 regulation of wells

“Public Health:

5-4 certain birds protected
5-4C, 42, 55 dogs running at large and bitches in heat prohibited
14-4 no smoking on buses
14^15 no self-service gas stations
15-2 regulation of sale of produce from trucks
15-4 food establishments to use public water supply
15-16 food, meat, milk inspectors
15-37 thru 40 regulates boardinghouses
15-52 milk code adopted
17-5 mosquito control

“Traffic Regulations:

22-2 stop & yield signs may be erected by chief of police
22-3 mufflers required
22-4 brakes required
22-5 inspection of vehicle by police
22-6 operation of vehicle
*8422-9 hitchhiking in roadway prohibited
22-9.1 permit to solicit funds on roadway
22-11 impounding cars
22-14 load limit on bridges
22-15 police damage stickers required after accident
22-25 driving while intoxicated
22-26 reckless driving
22-27 driving without consent of owner
22-33 stop sign
22-34 yield sign
22-38 driving across median
22-40 yield to emergency vehicle
22-42 cutting across private property
22-54 general speed limit
22-72 thru 78 truck routes

“Criminal Ordinances:

23-1 adopts all state misdemeanors
23-7.1 no wrecked cars on premises
23-15 nuisances
23-17 obscene literature
23-20 destruction of plants
23-37 swimming in nude
23-38 trespass to boats
26-51 no shooting galleries in the police jurisdiction or outside fire limits (downtown area)
28-31 thru 39 obscene films

“Miscellaneous :

20-120 thru 122 cigarette tax
24-31 public parks and recreation
26-18 admission tax
Chapter 29 regulates public streets
30-23 taxis must have meters.”

 See Comment, The Constitutionality of the Exercise of Extraterritorial Powers by Municipalities, 45 U. Chi. L. Rev. 151 (1977).