Court Opinion

ID: 9606240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:48:15.271047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:30.192073
License: Public Domain

Utter, C.J.
(concurring) — I join in the judgment and analysis of the court, and concur solely to further explore a legal doctrine relied upon by the majority. In analyzing the merits of the equal protection issue presented in this case, the majority states that "the party challenging the [legislative] classification has the heavy burden of overcoming the presumption of a statute's constitutionality." It is significant that the statute challenged in this case is, in fact, an economic statute, and that the case authority cited by the majority as support for this principle — Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Washington Life & Disability Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 83 Wn.2d 523, 520 P.2d 162 (1974) — also concerned an equal protection challenge to an economic statute. The presumption of constitutionality applies with far greater force to economic statutes than to statutes which affect personal civil liberties.
The presumption of constitutionality has long been an established legal doctrine. As early as 1838, the United States Supreme Court declared that there is a "presumption" that a legislative body did not intend "to exercise or usurp any unconstitutional authority . . ." United States u. Coombs, 37 U.S. (12 Pet.) 72, 76, 9 L. Ed. 1004,1006 (1838). We similarly observed in State v. Bowen & Co., 86 Wash 23, 27, 149 P. 330, 331 (1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 655, 61 L. Ed. 547, 37 S. Ct. 12 (1916), that, in determining *840the constitutionality of a legislative enactment, "[e]very possible presumption is in favor of the validity of the statute ..." This legal rule is founded upon the separation of powers principle, and reflects judicial deference for the actions of the legislative branch of government. See Salstrom's Vehicles, Inc. v. Department of Motor Vehicles, 87 Wn.2d 686, 690-91, 555 P.2d 1361, 1365 (1976). State v. Bowen & Co., supra.
The degree of presumptive validity to be accorded a legislative enactment varies according to the type of statute. For example, a presumption of constitutionality does not attach at all to statutes which affect civil rights that are protected under the First Amendment. See, e.g., Adams v. Hinkle, 51 Wn.2d 763, 768-69, 322 P.2d 844, 848 (1958). Indeed, this court has held that any statute which imposes restraints on First Amendment rights '"comes into court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutionality.'" State v. Conifer Enterprises, Inc., 82 Wn.2d 94, 99, 508 P.2d 149, 152 (1973). The role of the presumption of constitutionality in equal protection cases is, however, more complex. A full definition of that role requires an examination of the judiciary's application of the presumption under both the traditional and "new" equal protection analyses.
In applying traditional equal protection analysis, the United States Supreme Court recognized that a presumption of constitutionality applies to legislative classifications. See, e.g., Madden v. Kentucky, 309 U.S. 83, 88, 84 L. Ed. 590, 593, 60 S. Ct. 406, 408, 125 A.L.R. 1383 (1940); Mid-dleton v. Texas Power & Light Co., 249 U.S. 152, 157-58, 63 L. Ed. 527, 531, 39 S. Ct. 227, 229 (1919). The court made clear, however, that particular deference must be shown to legislative regulation of business and economic
activity, and therefore that a particularly heavy presumption of constitutionality must be given to economic statutes. See, e.g., Madden v. Kentucky, supra; Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78-79, 55 L. Ed. 369, 377, 31 S. Ct. 337, 340 (1911). See also Developments in the Law— Equal Protection, 82 Harv. L. Rev. 1065, 1083 (1969).
*841When the United States Supreme Court fashioned its new 2-tier approach to equal protection in the 1960's, see G. Gunther, Cases and Materials on Constitutional Law 658-59 (9th ed. 1975), it incorporated the presumption of constitutionality into its lower-level test of minimal scrutiny. The court explained that this minimal rationality test begins with the principle that "[s]tate legislatures are presumed to have acted within their constitutional power ..." McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 425, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393, 399, 81 S. Ct. 1101, 1105 (1961). This presumption of constitutionality does not apply at all under the upper-level test of strict scrutiny: statutes which affect constitutionally protected fundamental rights or suspect classifications do not enjoy such a presumption of constitutionality. See, e.g., Becker v. Levitt, 489 F.2d 1087, 1091 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 985, 40 L. Ed. 2d 762, 94 S. Ct. 2388 (1974).
In fashioning the new 2-tier test of equal protection, the court maintained its traditional deference for economic legislation. See G. Gunther, supra at 667. Accordingly, the court refined the minimal rationality test so as to apply a particularly heavy presumption of constitutionality to statutes affecting economic matters. See, e.g., McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 425-26, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393, 399,. 81 S. Ct. 1101, 1105 (1961). This heavier presumption of constitutionality for economic statutes is also evident in recent equal protection decisions of the United States Supreme Court. In New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 49 L. Ed. 2d 511, 96 S. Ct. 2513 (1976), the court considered an equal protection challenge to a New Orleans ordinance which prohibited push-cart operators from carrying on a vending business in the French Quarter of the city unless they had operated in the Quarter for at least 8 years. A push-cart operator who had carried on a vending business in the Quarter for only 2 years challenged the ordinance on equal protection grounds. After first identifying the ordinance as "solely an economic regulation", the court held that the ordinance did not violate equal protection, and explained:
*842When local economic regulation is challenged solely as violating the Equal Protection Clause, this Court consistently defers to legislative determinations as to the desirability of particular statutory discriminations. . . . Unless a classification trammels fundamental personal rights or is drawn upon inherently suspect distinctions such as race, religion, or alienage, our decisions presume the constitutionality of the statutory discriminations and require only that the classification challenged be rationally related to a legitimate state interest. States are accorded wide latitude in the regulation of their local economies under their police powers . . .
(Italics ours.) New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 303, 49 L. Ed. 2d 511, 516-17, 96 S. Ct. 2513, 2516-17 (1976). The court also took the opportunity to expressly overrule its earlier decision in Morey v. Doud, 354 U.S. 457, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1485, 77 S. Ct. 1344 (1957), "the only case in the last half century to invalidate a wholly economic regulation solely on equal protection grounds ..." New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 306, 49 L. Ed. 2d 511, 518, 96 S. Ct. 2513, 2518 (1976).
In Lehnhausen v. Lake Shore Auto Parts Co., 410 U.S. 356, 35 L. Ed. 2d 351, 93 S. Ct. 1001 (1973), rehearing denied, 411 U.S. 910, 36 L. Ed. 2d 200, 93 S. Ct. 1523 (1973), the court rejected an equal protection challenge to the Illinois personal property taxation scheme. Quoting from its earlier decision in Madden v. Kentucky, supra, the court declared that in taxation cases, "[t]here is a presumption of constitutionality which can be overcome 'only by the most explicit demonstration that a classification is a hostile and oppressive discrimination against particular persons and classes.'" Lehnhausen v. Lake Shore Auto Parts Co., 410 U.S. 356, 364, 35 L. Ed. 2d 351, 358, 93 S. Ct. 1001, 1006 (1973). The decisions of the United States Supreme Court thus recognize that, in according presumptive validity to legislative enactments, a stronger presumption of constitutionality attaches to statutes regulating economic matters than to statutes affecting personal civil liberties. Cf. Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. *8431, 15, 22-24, 49 L. Ed. 2d 752, 766, 770-71, 96 S. Ct. 2882, 2892, 2895-96 (1976) (holding that, in the due process context, a far stronger presumption of constitutionality applies to economic statutes than to statutes affecting personal civil liberties such as the right to retain custody of one's children, even when these civil liberties do not rise to the status of constitutionally protected "fundamental rights").
The particularly heavy presumption of constitutionality accorded economic statutes is also apparent in the decisions of this court. In Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Washington Life & Disability Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 83 Wn.2d 523, 528, 520 P.2d 162, 166 (1974), we considered an equal protection challenge to the Life and Disability Insurance Guaranty Association Act. Upholding the constitutionality of the act, we stated that:
[One] limitation upon our exercise of judicial review is the heavy presumption of constitutionality accorded a legislative act. ... A statute's alleged unconstitutionality must be proven "beyond all reasonable doubt" before it may be struck down.
Subsequently, in Salstrom's Vehicles, Inc. v. Department of Motor Vehicles, supra, we explained that a particularly heavy presumption of constitutionality was applied in Aetna Life precisely because the challenged statutory provisions concerned economic matters. Quoting from the discussion of the presumption of constitutionality in Aetna Life, we explained in Salstrom's Vehicles that the principles involved were "the principles applicable to constitutional attacks on economic and business regulations". Salstrom's Vehicles, Inc. v. Department of Motor Vehicles, 87 Wn.2d 686, 690, 555 P.2d 1361, 1365 (1976). In Salstrom's Vehicles, as in Aetna Life, we applied the heavy presumption of constitutionality to a statute regulating business activities, and concluded that the statute conformed to equal protection requirements.
The challenged statute in the instant case concerns mandatory mediation and arbitration for public employees and *844therefore is properly classified as a statute regulating economic matters. Cf. Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1, 15, 49 L. Ed. 2d 752, 766, 96 S. Ct. 2882, 2892 (1976). The decision of the court today reflects the principle that in equal protection cases, a particularly heavy presumption of constitutionality is reserved for economic statutes.
Hicks, J., concurs with Utter, C.J.
Reconsideration denied January 11, 1980.