Plyler v. Doe

Plyler v. Doe
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 1, 1981 Decided June 15, 1982
Full case name	James Plyler, Superintendent, Tyler Independent School District, et al. v. John Doe, et al.
Citations	457 U.S. 202 (more) 102 S. Ct. 2382; 72 L. Ed. 2d 786; 1982 U.S. LEXIS 124; 50 U.S.L.W. 4650
Case history
Prior	Judgment for plaintiffs, 458 F. Supp. 569 (E.D. Tex. 1978); affirmed, 628 F.2d 448 (5th Cir. 1980)
Subsequent	Rehearing denied, 458 U.S. 1131 (1982)
Holding
Denial of public education to students not legally admitted into the country violates the Equal Protection Clause. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Concurrence	Marshall
Concurrence	Blackmun
Concurrence	Powell
Dissent	Burger, joined by White, Rehnquist, O'Connor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV; Tex. Educ. Code Ann. § 21.031

Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down both a state statute denying funding for education to undocumented immigrant children in the United States and a municipal school district's attempt to charge an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each student to compensate for lost state funding. The Court found that any state restriction imposed on the rights afforded to children based on their immigration status must be examined under a rational basis standard to determine whether it furthers a substantial government interest.

The application of Plyler v. Doe has been limited to K–12 schooling. Other cases and legislation such as Toll v. Moreno 441 U.S. 458 (1979) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 have allowed some states to pass statutes that deny undocumented immigrant students eligibility for in-state tuition, scholarships, or enrollment at public colleges and universities.

History

In 1975 the Texas Independent School District “prohibited the use of state funds for the education of children who had not been legally admitted to the U.S" (457 U.S.202). The school district's policy also allowed schools to deny enrollment of any “unauthorized” child seeking to attend the school. Then in 1977, the Tyler Independent School District instituted a policy mandating that forgien-born students who were not considered to be legally admitted to the United States were required to pay tuition. “Under the school district’s policy, children were considered “legally admitted” if (1) they possessed documentation showing that they were legally present in the United States, or (2) federal immigration authorities confirmed they were in the process of securing such documentation”

Summary

Revisions to education laws in Texas in 1975 withheld state funds for educating children who had not been legally admitted to the United States and authorized local school districts to deny enrollment to such students. A 5–4 majority of the Supreme Court found the policy to violate the Fourteenth Amendment, as undocumented immigrant children are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and therefore had protection from discrimination unless a substantial state interest could be shown to justify it.

The court majority found that the Texas law was "directed against children, and impose[d] its discriminatory burden on the basis of a legal characteristic over which children can have little control". The majority also observed that denying the children in question a proper education would likely contribute to "the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare, and crime". The majority did not find that any substantial state interest would be impacted by discrimination on that basis and so struck down the Texas law.

Texas officials had argued that undocumented immigrants were not "within the jurisdiction" of the state and thus could not claim protections under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court majority rejected that claim but found that "no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment 'jurisdiction' can be drawn between resident immigrants whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident immigrants whose entry was unlawful".

In short, the most prominent take-aways from this case were that The Court reasoned that unauthorized immigrants and their children, although not technically citizens of the United States or Texas, are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and, therefore, are afforded Fourteenth Amendment protections. Since the state law severely disadvantaged the children of illegal aliens, by denying them the right to an education, and because Texas could not prove that the regulation was needed to serve a "compelling state interest," the Court struck down the law.

Concurrent Opinions

Of the four justices who joined the majority opinion written by Justice Brennan, three wrote their own concurring opinions.

Justice Marshall called specific attention to the fact that he believed the interest of an individual to pursue an education is fundamental and that this belief is amply supported by the unique status accorded public education by our society, and by the close relationship between education and some of our most basic constitutional values."

Justice Blackmun noted that "when a state provides an education to some and denies it to others, it immediately and inevitably creates class distinctions of a type fundamentally inconsistent with" the purposes of the Equal Protection Clause because "an uneducated child is denied even the opportunity to achieve." When those children are members of an identifiable class, the state has created a separable and identifiable underclass."

Justice Powell noted the uniqueness of this particular case. He highlighted that as long as this law stands a group of children is being denied access to education, not due to actions of their own, but because of a violation of the law by their parents. "A legislative classification that threatens the creation of an underclass of future citizens and residents cannot be reconciled with one of the fundamental purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment."

Dissenting Opinions

Four justices issued dissenting opinions in the Plyler v. Doe case.  Those justices being Chief Justice Burger, joined by Justices White, Rehnquist, and O'Connor

The four dissenting justices all agreed with the majority that it would be wrong to “tolerate creation of a segment of society made up of illiterate persons". The dissenting opinion also rejected that claim and agreed with the Court that "the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to immigrants who, after their illegal entry into this country, are indeed physically 'within the jurisdiction' of a state".  However,  in his dissent Chief Justice Burger asserted that issues of whether or not to admit children of undocumented immagrants should be delegated to congress not the judiciary as it is more a policy issue than a constitutinal one,  Burger further argued that the "Equal Protection Clause does not mandate identical treatment of different categories of persons" and that Texas did in fact have a legitimate reason to seek to distinguish between individuals who were residing in the country legally versus illegally.

This case was decided together with Texas v. Certain Named and Unnamed Alien Children.

See also

• Gallegly amendment
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 457

Further reading

• Oliveras, Michael A. (2005). "Plyler v. Doe, the Education of Undocumented Children, and the Polity". In Martin, David A.; Schuck, Peter H. (eds.). Immigration Stories. New York: Foundation Press. pp. 197–220. ISBN 1-62810-718-9.
• Soltero, Carlos R. (2006). "Plyler v. Doe (1982) and educating children of illegal aliens". Latinos and American Law: Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 118–132. ISBN 0-292-71411-4.

External links

• Interview with Attorney Larry Daves about his work on Plyer v. Doe Texas After Violence Project and Human Rights Documentation Initiative
• Text of Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) is available from: Cornell Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)