Sugarman v. Dougall, 413 U.S. 634

Supreme Court of the United States

1973

Chapter

5

Title

Equality and the Constitution

Page

687

Topic

Classifications based on alienage are subject to close judicial or heightened scrutiny

Quick Notes

o         New York passed a statute that excluded aliens from employment in all government civil service positions that were filled by competitive examination.

o         The positions from which aliens were excluded included the "full range of work tasks (sanitation man, to the typist, to the office work, and to a person who directly participates in state policy)

o         The exclusion did not apply, however, to any higher offices in state executive departments.

o         Nor did it apply to elected positions and offices filled by means of legislative or governor appointment.

Rule

o         Classifications based on alienage are subject to close judicial or heightened scrutiny

Court - Holding

o         The Court affirmed the lower court's decision and determined that aliens as a class were a prime example of a discrete and insular minority. Classifications based on alienage were subject to close judicial scrutiny

Court - Justification proves both too much and too little

o         The State's broad prohibition of the employment of aliens applies to many positions with respect to which the State's proffered justification has little, if any, relationship.

o         At the same time, the prohibition has no application at all to positions that would seem naturally to fall within the State's asserted purpose.  (Higher offices in the state executive department).

o         Our standard of review of statutes that treat aliens differently from citizens requires a greater degree of precision.

Book Name

Constitutional Law : Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet.  ISBN:  978-0-7355-7719-0

Issue

o         Whether New Yorks flat statutory prohibition against the employment of aliens in the competitive classified civil services is constitutionally valid?  No.

o         Does the Constitution permit a flat statutory prohibition against government employment of aliens in the competitive classified civil service?  No.

Procedure

Trial

o         United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that N.Y. Civ. Serv. Law § 53 was violative of 14th amendment.

Supreme

o         Affirmed.  The Court affirmed the lower court's decision and determined that aliens as a class were a prime example of a discrete and insular minority. Classifications based on alienage were subject to close judicial scrutiny.

Facts/Cases

Discussion

Key Phrases

Rules/Laws

Pl -   Sugarman

Df -   Dougall

Description

o         New York passed a statute that excluded aliens from employment in all government civil service positions that were filled by competitive examination.

o         The positions from which aliens were excluded included the "full range of work tasks (sanitation man, to the typist, to the office work, and to a person who directly participates in state policy)

o         The exclusion did not apply, however, to any higher offices in state executive departments.

o         Nor did it apply to elected positions and offices filled by means of legislative or governor appointment.

Justice Blackmun

Equal Protection for Aliens

o         Aliens are entitled to the shelter of the Equal Protection Clause.

New York argues - Statute Establishes a generic classification

o         The statute in question does not violate the Equal Protection Clause because it "establishes a generic classification reflecting the special requirements of public employment in the career civil service."

New York further argues - Hire loyal employees

o         Because the civil servant participates directly in the formulation and execution of government policy, the state has an interest in hiring an employee of undivided loyalty for such positions.

Court - Justification proves both too much and too little

o         The State's broad prohibition of the employment of aliens applies to many positions with respect to which the State's proffered justification has little, if any, relationship.

o         At the same time, the prohibition has no application at all to positions that would seem naturally to fall within the State's asserted purpose.  (Higher offices in the state executive department).

o         Our standard of review of statutes that treat aliens differently from citizens requires a greater degree of precision.

Subject to close scrutiny

Graham v. Richardson

o         A state statute disqualified aliens from receipt of various forms of welfare assistance.

o         Aliens as a class "are a prime example of a 'discrete [apart] and insular [alone]' minority and that classifications based on alienage are "subject to close judicial scrutiny.

o         Classifications based on alienage are like those based on nationality or race, are inherently suspect.

o         A States desire to preserve limited welfare benefits for its own citizens is inadequate to justify making noncitizens ineligible for public assistance.

Court - The New York Statute does not withstand the NECESSARY close scrutiny.

Court - The means must be precisely drawn in light of the acknowledged purpose

o         We recognize that states have an interest in limiting participation in government to those who are within the basic conception of a political community.

o         States also have an interest in defining this community.

o         But to do so with discrimination against aliens, the State must employ means precisely drawn in light of the acknowledged purpose.

Court - Neither narrowly confined nor precise in its application

o         The New York statute is neither narrowly confined nor precise in its application, and as such its flat ban on the employment of aliens in positions that have little, if any, relation to the state's legitimate interests cannot withstand scrutiny under the 14th Amendment.

Court - Never held that aliens have the right to VOTE or to hold HIGH office.

Refusal to hire alien can be based on states legitimate interest

o         This is not to say that, on the basis of an individualized determination, an alien may not be refused or discharged from public employment, even on the basis of non-citizenship.

o     If the refusal to hire, or the discharge, rests on legitimate state interests that relate to qualifications for a particular position or to the characteristics of the employee.

A State may require citizenship as a qualification for office

o         Additionally, we do not hold that a state may not, in an appropriately defined class of positions, require citizenship as a qualification for office.

o         Nor will we say that it is unconstitutional to put a narrowly-defined restriction on the employment of non-citizens, for alienage itself is a factor that reasonably could be employed in defining political community.

Affirmed

DISSENT - Justice Rehnquist

o         The majority hold that an alien is not really different from a citizen, and that any legislative classification on the basis of alienage is inherently suspect.

Equal protection clause does not contain this language

o         The Equal Protection Clause, however, contains no language concerning "inherently suspect classifications."

Principal purpose of 14th Amendment

o         The principal purpose of the drafters of the 14th Amendment was to prohibit the States from invidiously discriminating by reason of race.

Framer do not intend to render alienage a suspect classification

o         But there is no language used in the Amendment, or any historical evidence as to the intent of the Framers, which would suggest to the slightest degree that it is intended to render alienage a "suspect" classification, or that it was designed in any way to protect discrete and insular minorities.

Constitution recognizes the difference between Citizens and Aliens

o         In holding as it does, the Court fails to mention the fact that the Constitution itself recognizes a basic difference between citizens and aliens.

May be some aliens thing bribery or self-dealing is okay

o         Finally, it is not irrational to assume that aliens as a class are not familiar with how we expect government to be run.

o         An alien who grew up in a country in which, for example, bribery or self-dealing is not rejected to the degree that it is here, or in which fewer if any checks existed on administrative abuses, could rationally be thought not to be able to deal with the public in the same way that one familiar with our government would.

Rules

Rule

o         Classifications based on alienage are subject to close judicial or heightened scrutiny

Class Notes