Court Opinion

ID: 9495335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:00:18.375512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:57.455120
License: Public Domain

McKEOWN, Circuit Judge,
Concurring.
That the right to travel abroad is an important one is beyond dispute. The Supreme Court has not, however, declared international travel to be a fundamental right. Indeed, the Court has never mandated strict scrutiny review, but rather has pointedly distinguished between international travel and interstate travel. Califano v. Aznavorian, 439 U.S. 170, 176, 99 S.Ct. 471, 58 L.Ed.2d 435 (1978) (holding that interstate travel is “virtually unqualified” in contrast to international travel which is “no more than an aspect of the ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause”). As a consequence, considering the nature of the right to travel internationally, in my view intermediate scrutiny comes the closest to being the proper standard when First Amendment concerns are not implicated. Therefore, I concur in the result of Judge Fernandez’s opinion because I conclude that the statute passes muster under intermediate scrutiny.
Securing the payment of child support for minor children is surely both an important and substantial government interest. Considering that enforcement often becomes illusory once the parent leaves the country, the passport restriction makes perfect sense. Significantly, the restriction is not absolute. Eunique, a lawyer, could simply pay the support. Doing so would not implicate any First Amendment or other fundamental right. Also, the procedure for state certification to the federal government of delinquent child support apparently permits waiver of the restriction for business purposes and family emergencies. Eunique has not even attempted to avail herself of the regulatory safe harbor.1 Eunique’s right to international travel, although protected under the Due Process clause, is not absolute. Accordingly, the restriction imposed here was carefully considered and should be upheld.
To understand the development of the jurisprudence in the travel arena, it is instructive to take a short chronological tour of the key Supreme Court cases and our circuit’s follow-on cases. The seminal case of Kent v. Dulles, 357 U.S. 116, 117-18, 78 S.Ct. 1113, 2 L.Ed.2d 1204 (1958), considered regulations relating to the issuance of passports to Communists. The Court explained that “[t]he right to travel is part of the ‘liberty’ of which the citizen *977cannot be deprived without the due process of law under the Fifth Amendment.” Id. at 125, 78 S.Ct. 1113. It went on to elaborate that “[t]ravel abroad, like travel within the country, may be necessary for a livelihood. It may be as close to the heart of the individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values.” Id. at 126, 78 S.Ct. 1113. In the end, however, the Court did not reach the constitutional question; instead, it decided the case based on the scope of the Secretary of State’s regulatory authority. Id. at 129, 78 S.Ct. 1113.
The Court next addressed international travel in a challenge to section 6 of the Subversive Activities Control Act, which denied passports to Communists. Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500, 501, 84 S.Ct. 1659, 12 L.Ed.2d 992 (1964). Concluding that the Act was unconstitutional on its face because it swept “too widely and too indiscriminately across the liberty guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment”2 and was not “narrowly drawn to prevent the supposed evil,” id. at 514, 84 S.Ct. 1659, the Court pointed out that Congress had less drastic measures at its disposal to safeguard national security. Id. at 512-13, 84 S.Ct. 1659.
Just one year later, in Zemel v. Rusk, 381 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S.Ct. 1271, 14 L.Ed.2d 179 (1965), the Court upheld the constitutionality of travel restrictions to Cuba because the regulations were “supported by the weightiest considerations of national security.” Significantly, the Court distinguished Kent because it dealt with passport denial based on political beliefs or associations. Id. at 13, 85 S.Ct. 1271. Referring to Kent, the Court observed that “the fact that a liberty cannot be inhibited without due process of law does not mean that it can under no circumstances be inhibited.” Id. at 14, 85 S.Ct. 1271.
More than ten years after Zemel, in Aznavorian, 439 U.S. at 171-72, 99 S.Ct. 471, the Court considered an aspect of a government benefits program that suspended payment to recipients who were absent from the United States for more than thirty days. The Court rejected Az-navorian’s argument that the suspension of benefits impermissibly infringed her right to travel internationally and should be subject to heightened scrutiny. Id. at 172, 175, 99 S.Ct. 471. After discussing Kent, Aptheker, and Zemel, the Court observed that there were crucial differences between the right to interstate travel, which is “virtually unqualified,” and international travel, which is “no more than an aspect of the ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause.” Id. at 175-76, 99 S.Ct. 471. Concluding that the right to international travel could be regulated within the bounds of due process, the Court held that “legislation which is said to infringe on the freedom to travel abroad is not to be judged by the same standard applied to laws that penalize the right of interstate travel.” Id. at 176-77, 99 S.Ct. 471. Ultimately, the Court upheld the provision, *978which had an “incidental effect on a protected liberty” and was “rationally based.” Id. at 177-78, 99 S.Ct. 471.
Finally, the Supreme Court had occasion to tie these cases together in Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280, 282, 310, 101 S.Ct. 2766, 69 L.Ed.2d 640 (1981), when it held that former CIA agent Philip Agee’s passport could be revoked because his efforts to expose intelligence agents posed a threat to national security. Although Agee attempted to invoke the authority of Kent, the Court distinguished Aptheker and Kent on the grounds that those cases involved beliefs rather than conduct. Id. at 304-05, 101 S.Ct. 2766 (“The protection accorded beliefs standing alone is very different from the protection accorded conduct.”).
As to Agee’s freedom to travel argument, the Court acknowledged that a passport revocation “undeniably eurtail[ed] travel.” Id. at 306, 101 S.Ct. 2766. Nonetheless, “[t]he freedom to travel abroad ... is subordinate to national security and foreign policy consideration; as such, it is subject to reasonable government regulation.” Id. The Court then quoted Azna-vorian for the proposition that freedom to travel abroad is not protected to the same extent as freedom to travel within the U.S. Id.
Following the teachings of these cases, we have addressed international travel on two occasions. The issue was raised in Causey v. Pan Am. World Airways, Inc. (In re Aircrash in Bali, Indonesia on April 22, 1971), 684 F.2d 1301, 1309 (9th Cir.1982), in the context of the Warsaw Convention. The panel held that because the plaintiffs had a statutory remedy available under the Tucker Act, the case should be heard by the Court of Claims. Id. at 1310, 1316. Although the panel used the phrase “fundamental right” in referencing international travel, it stated that “[r]e-strietions on international travel ... must be carefully tailored to serve a substantial and legitimate government interest.” Id. at 1309. This approach is more appropriately characterized as something less than strict scrutiny and more akin to intermediate scrutiny. See, e.g., Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 197, 97 S.Ct. 451, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976) (the restriction must “serve important governmental objectives and must be substantially related to achievement of those objectives.”).
Following Causey, we decided Freedom to Travel Campaign v. Newcomb, 82 F.3d 1431 (9th Cir.1996). Although Freedom to Travel referenced the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in this area, it did not discuss the Causey decision. Id. at 1438-39. Commenting on travel restrictions to Cuba, we characterized the government’s goal of restricting hard currency into Cuba as “important,” “substantial,” and even “vital.” Id. at 1439. Freedom to Travel equivocates that the proper test is rational basis, or at most intermediate, scrutiny: “[g]iven the lesser importance of this freedom to travel abroad, the Government need only advance a rational, or at most an important, reason for [restricting international travel].” Id. But in using the terms “important” and “substantial” interest, it also mirrors Causey’s language of a “substantial” reason, thus easily supporting an intermediate scrutiny standard.
Given the importance of international travel — particularly in a global economy and an interdependent world — but recognizing the Supreme Court’s distinction between international and domestic travel, I conclude that intermediate scrutiny should be the benchmark. In his opinion, Judge Fernandez concludes that the regulation at issue passed both rational basis and intermediate scrutiny. Therefore, I concur in the result.

. Although this safe harbor derives from state law, the federal statute is predicated on state certification of child support delinquency provided in accordance with federal law. 42 U.S.C. § 653(k); see also 22 C.F.R. § 51.70(8).

. In footnote 4, the Court noted that plaintiffs also argued that the statute was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. Although the Court stated that it was unnecessary to reach the First Amendment argument, id. at 504 n. 4, 84 S.Ct. 1659, First Amendment considerations were central to the discussion. For example, in response to the government's suggestion that one could still obtain a passport by abandoning Communist party membership, the Court found that such an infringement on the First Amendment freedom of association right was impermissible. Id. at 507, 84 S.Ct. 1659. In assessing whether the legislation in question abridged the Fifth Amendment, the Court recognized "the danger of punishing a member of a Communist organization 'for his adherence to lawful and constitutionally protected purposes, because of other and unprotected purposes which he does not necessarily share.’ " Id. at 512, 84 S.Ct. 1659 (citation omitted).