Court Opinion

ID: 9427043
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:31.214671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.879386
License: Public Domain

*407Mr. Justice Rehnquist,
dissenting.
I substantially agree with my Brother Powell’s reasons for rejecting the Court’s conclusion that marriage is the sort of “fundamental right” which must invariably trigger the strictest judicial scrutiny. I disagree with his imposition of an “intermediate” standard of review, which leads him to conclude that the statute, though generally valid as an “additional collection mechanism” offends the Constitution by its “failure to make provision for those without the means to comply with child-support obligations.” Ante, at 400. For similar reasons, I disagree with my Brother Stewart’s conclusion that the statute is invalid for its failure to exempt those persons who “simply cannot afford to meet the statute’s financial requirements.” Ante, at 394. I would view this legislative judgment in the light of the traditional presumption of validity. I think that under the Equal Protection Clause the statute need pass only the “rational basis test,” Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 485 (1970), and that under the Due Process Clause it need only be shown that it bears a rational relation to a constitutionally permissible objective, Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U. S. 483, 491 (1955); Ferguson v. Skrupa, 372 U. S. 726, 733 (1963) (Harlan, J., concurring). The statute so viewed is a permissible exercise of the State’s power to regulate family life and to assure the support of minor children, despite its possible imprecision in the extreme cases envisioned in the concurring opinions.
Earlier this Term the traditional standard of review was applied in Califano v. Jobst, ante, p. 47, despite the claim that the statute there in question burdened the exercise of the right to marry. The extreme situation considered there involved a permanently disabled appellee whose benefits under the Social Security Act had been terminated because of his *408marriage to ail equally disabled woman who was not, however, a beneficiary under the Act. This Court recognized that Congress, in granting the original benefit, could reasonably assume that a disabled adult child remained dependent upon his parents for support. The Court concluded that, upon a beneficiary’s marriage, Congress could terminate his benefits, because “there can be no question about the validity of the assumption that a married person is less likely to be dependent on his parents for support than one who is unmarried.” Ante, at 53. Although that assumption had been proved false as applied in that individual case, the statute was nevertheless rational. “The broad legislative classification must be judged by reference to characteristics typical of the affected classes rather than by focusing on selected, atypical examples.” Ante, at 55.
The analysis applied in Jobst is equally applicable here. Here, too, the Wisconsin Legislature has “adopted this rule in the course of constructing a complex social welfare system that necessarily deals with the intimacies of family life.” Ante, at 54 n. 11. Because of the limited amount of funds available for the support of needy children, the State has an exceptionally strong interest in securing as much support as their parents are able to pay. Nor does the extent of the burden imposed by this statute so differentiate it from that considered in Jobst as to warrant a different result. In the case of some applicants, this statute makes the proposed marriage legally impossible for financial reasons; in a similar number of extreme cases, the Social Security Act makes the proposed marriage practically impossible for the same reasons. I cannot conclude that such a difference justifies the application of a heightened standard of review to the statute in question here. In short, I conclude that the statute, despite its imperfections, is sufficiently rational to satisfy the demands of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Two of the opinions concurring in the judgment seem to agree that the statute is sufficiently rational except as applied to the truly indigent. Ante, at 394 (Stewart, J.); ante, at *409400 (Powell, J.). Under this view, the statute could, I suppose, be constitutionally applied to forbid the marriages of those applicants who had willfully failed to contribute so much as was in their means to the support of their dependent children. Even were I to agree that a statute based upon generally valid assumptions could be struck down on the basis of “selected, atypical examples,” Jobst, ante, at 55, I could not concur in the judgment of the Court, because there has been no showing that this appellee is so truly indigent that the State could not refuse to sanction his marriage.
Under well-established rules of standing, a litigant may assert the invalidity of a statute only as applied in his case. “[A] person to whom a statute may constitutionally be applied will not be heard to challenge that statute on the ground that it may conceivably be applied unconstitutionally to others, in situations not before the Court.” Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U. S. 601, 610 (1973). See also Barrows v. Jackson, 346 U. S. 249, 256-257 (1953). We have made a limited exception to this rule in cases arising under the First Amendment, allowing the invalidation of facially overbroad statutes to guard against a chilling effect on the exercise of constitutionally protected free speech. See, e. g., Coates v. Cincinnati, 402 U. S. 611 (1971). But no claim based on the First Amendment is or could be made by this appellee.
Appellee’s standing to contest the validity of the statute as applied to him must be considered on the basis of the facts as stipulated before the District Court. The State conceded, without requiring proof, that “[f]rom May of 1972 until August of 1974, [appellee] was unemployed and indigent and unable to pay any sum for support of his issue.” App. 21. There is no stipulation in this record that appellee was indigent at the time he was denied a marriage license on September 30, 1974, or that he was indigent at the time he filed his complaint on December 24, 1974, or that he was indigent at the time the District Court rendered its judgment on August 31, 1976. All we know of his more recent financial *410condition is his counsel’s concession at oral argument that appellee had married in Illinois, Tr. of Oral Arg. 23, clearly-demonstrating that he knows how to obtain funds for a purpose which he deems sufficiently important. On these inart-fully stipulated facts, it cannot be said, even now, that this appellee is incapable of discharging the arrearage as required by the support order and contributing sufficient funds in the future to remove his child from the welfare rolls. Therefore, even under the view taken by the opinions concurring in the judgment, appellee has not shown that this statute is unconstitutional as applied to him.
Because of my conclusion that the statute is valid despite its possible application to the truly indigent, I need not determine whether the named appellee’s failure to establish his indigency should preclude this Court from granting injunc-tive relief to the indigent members of the class which appellee purports to represent.* Our decisions have demonstrated that, where the claim of the named representative has become moot, this Court is not bound to dismiss the action but may consider a variety of factors in determining whether to proceed. See generally Kremens v. Bartley, 431 U. S. 119, 129-135 (1977). It has never been explicitly determined whether *411similar considerations apply where the named representative never had a valid claim of his own. But see Allee v. Medrano, 416 U. S. 802, 828-829, and n. 4 (1974) (Burger, C. J., concurring and dissenting). In light of my view on the merits, I am content to save this question for another day.
I would reverse the judgment of the District Court.

Ordinarily, “a class representative must be part of the class and ‘possess the same interest and suffer the same injury’ as the class members.” East Texas Motor Freight v. Rodriguez, 431 U. S. 395, 403 (1977), quoting Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, 418 U. S. 208, 216 (1974). At least where the issue is properly raised, an appellate court may consider the representative’s failure to establish his own claim in determining whether a class action may be maintained. See, e. g., Donaldson v. Pillsbury Co., 554 F. 2d 825, 831-832, n. 5 (CA8 1977); cf. East Texas, supra, at 406 n. 12. In some -instances, the court may eliminate from the class those persons whom the named plaintiff may not adequately represent. La Mar v. H & B Novelty & Loan Co., 489 F. 2d 461 (CA9 1973). In this case, such an approach could require the dismissal of the class action altogether, since appellee can represent no one with a valid claim. The State, however, has inexplicably failed to challenge the certification of the plaintiff class, either here or in the trial court.