Childrens & Parents Rights Ass'n v. Sullivan

• Decision Date: 11 December 1991
• Docket Number: No. 4:90 CV 297.,4:90 CV 297.
• Citation: 787 F. Supp. 724
• Parties: CHILDRENS AND PARENTS RIGHTS ASSOCIATION OF OHIO, INC., (CAPRA), Plaintiff, v. Louis W. SULLIVAN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

787 F. Supp. 724

CHILDRENS AND PARENTS RIGHTS ASSOCIATION OF OHIO, INC., (CAPRA), Plaintiff, v. Louis W. SULLIVAN, et al., Defendants.

No. 4:90 CV 297.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, E.D.

December 11, 1991.

Robert M. Fertel, Sanford J. Berger, Berger & Fertel, Cleveland, Ohio, for plaintiff.

Lynne H. Buck, Michael Anne Johnson, Asst. U.S. Attys., Office of the U.S. Atty., Cleveland, Ohio, Karen Lee Lazorishak, Office of the Ohio State Atty. Gen., Columbus, Ohio, Robert K. Coulter, Dept. of Justice, Tax Div., Washington, D.C., Loren L. Braverman, Office of the Atty. Gen., Shawn H. Nau, Columbus, Ohio, Steven D. Bell, Janik & Bell, Cleveland, Ohio, David J. Betras, Law Office of David J. Betras, Stuart-Banks, Youngstown, Ohio, for defendants.

ORDER

BATTISTI, District Judge.

Before the Court are: (1) a motion for declaratory and injunctive relief filed by Plaintiff Childrens and Parents Rights Association of Ohio, Inc. (CAPRA); (2) Defendant Ohio Department of Human Service's (ODHS) Motion to Dismiss; (3) Defendant Judge John H. Leskovyansky's Motion to Dismiss; (4) Defendants Louis W. Sullivan, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Office of Child Support Enforcement's (OCSE) Motion for Summary Judgment.

For the reasons set forth below, the Court denies in part Plaintiff's motion. The Court grants Defendants ODHS and Judge Leskovyansky's respective Motions to Dismiss. The Court also grants in part Defendant HHS and OCSE's Motion for Summary Judgment.

FACTS

Plaintiff raises numerous constitutional challenges to federal child support laws and corresponding state laws. This comprehensive system is intended to produce equitable awards of child support; it also includes enforcement mechanisms designed to ensure prompt payment.

The federal government has played a role in child support enforcement since 1950. Its initial efforts in the area were limited to an amendment to the Social Security Act, requiring state welfare agencies to notify appropriate law enforcement officials when a child who had been abandoned by a parent became a recipient of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Pub.L. 81-734, § 321(b).

It was not until the Child Support Enforcement Program was signed into law in 1975, however, that the federal government became a major participant in such programs. 42 U.S.C. §§ 651-669 (hereinafter referred to as Title IV-D). The 1975 Act opened up Title IV-D services, previously intended to benefit children receiving AFDC benefits, and made them available to non-welfare families as well.

Title IV-D authorized federal financial assistance for a range of state programs and services designed to encourage state enforcement of child support obligations. The goals of the program as a whole included: location of obligors, establishment of paternity, establishment of support, and enforcement of support. While the states retained basic responsibility for establishing paternity and collecting child support, the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) was cast in a supervisory and assisting role. At that time, the Secretary of HEW created OCSE to administer the federal program.¹

Despite Congressional efforts, problems remained with the amounts for child support varying from awards that were too low to provide reasonable funds for the needs of the children to awards which were so high as to be equally unreasonable and likely to exacerbate tensions.

Therefore, in 1984, Congress passed additional amendments. The amendments again emphasized the universal availability of Title IV-D benefits. See 42 U.S.C. § 651; 1984 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News at 2397, XXXX-XXXX. More importantly, using as an example the efforts of a few states that had begun to use guidelines for setting child support levels, the amendments required that all states receiving federal funding develop similar guidelines. Pub.L. 98-378, § 18. Congress concluded that "the very existence of a set of guidelines in each state will tend to improve the reasonableness and equity with which support orders are established." 1984 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2436.

Following the enactment of the 1984 amendments, the Secretary of Health and Human Services promulgated regulations which also are at issue in the present litigation. The regulations require that the state guidelines "be based on specific descriptive and numeric criteria." 45 C.F.R. § 302.56(c). The numeric criteria may "include factors such as, but not limited to, income and resources of the parents and the number and needs of dependents." 50 Fed.Reg. 19643 (May 9, 1985).

Again, changes in the law proved to be insufficient. The legislative history behind the most recent amendments, the Family Support Act of 1988, indicated that:

The problem of nonsupport of children has become a serious one for this country. Nearly one-quarter of all children now live with only one parent. And although many noncustodial parents are diligent payers of child support, there are millions who are not. The Census Bureau data tells us that of the 8.8 million mothers with children whose fathers were not living in the home in the spring of 1986, 3.4 million, or nearly 40 per cent of these mothers, have never been awarded support for their children. ... Of those who had been awarded and were due support in 1986, only half received the full amount they were due.

S.Rep. 377, 100th Cong.2d Sess. (1988), reprinted in 1988 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 2776, 2785.

In a renewed effort to remedy the situation, the new legislation altered the use of guidelines for determining appropriate levels of child support. Pub.L. 100-485. The guidelines, previously not binding on judicial decisionmakers, now create rebuttable presumptions that their result is the correct amount of child support. A written finding overcomes the rebuttable presumption. 42 U.S.C. § 667(b). States must review their guidelines periodically. 42 U.S.C. § 667.

The 1988 Act, moreover, established strict enforcement measures. In particular, states must provide for mandatory wage withholding, without waiting for an arrearage, except where the state finds good cause to act otherwise or both parents agree to an alternative arrangement. 42 U.S.C. § 666.

In keeping with the concept of "cooperative federalism," federal and state laws mesh together in the area of child support. Starting in 1975, states that wish to participate in AFDC also are required to take part in Title IV-D. Federal funding is available only if the state complies with both AFDC and Title IV-D and regulations promulgated thereunder. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 601, 602(a)(27), 654(13).

The state of Ohio has elected to participate in the AFDC program. Accordingly, the state also takes part in Title IV-D. It has promulgated its own set of guidelines.

When the present litigation began, the guidelines were embodied by Supreme Court of Ohio Rule 75 (effective October 1, 1987). On April 12, 1990, the judicially promulgated guidelines were superseded as Amended Substitute House Bill Number 591 became law.

The new guidelines are entitled "Basic Child Support Schedule," and consist of a table which uses the combined gross income of both parents along with their total number of children to determine an overall figure. The overall figure is then divided between the parents so that each of them is responsible for the same proportion as their income represents of their combined income. Thus, for example, a non-custodial parent whose income was double that of the custodial parent would have twice the child support obligations. The table does not apply, however, if the parents' combined gross income is less than $6000 or more than $120,000. See generally Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 3113.215 (Page 1990 Supp.)

Plaintiff in its Amended Complaint makes the following claims concerning the child support system:²

1. The Ohio Guidelines violate the Supremacy Clause of Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution; 2. The Ohio Guidelines violate fundamental rights to marry and procreate, and therefore violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution;

3. The Ohio Guidelines violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution;

4. Ohio Revised Code §§ 2301.35 and 3113.211 violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution;

5. 42 U.S.C. § 667 violates the Appointments Clause of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution;

6. Section 667 violates the doctrine of separation of powers;

7. Section 667 constitutes an improper delegation of Congressional legislative powers;

8. Section 667 violates the Spending Clause of Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution;

9. Section 667 violates the Contract Clause of Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution;

10. Section 667 violates prohibitions against ex post facto laws found in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, and Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the Constitution;

11. HHS and OCSE have exceeded the authority delegated to them by Congress pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 667;

12. Section 667 and guidelines developed thereunder violate the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

In large part, Plaintiff's claims rest on the theory that:

The Guidelines were based on the premise that a child's standard of living after a divorce should be the same as when the family was an intact household, as the economic studies which were the foundation and basis for determining child support were based on costs expended for raising a child in intact homes at differing incomes, rather than the reality that there would now be the expense of maintaining two households for dovorced sic parents.

Plaintiff's Class Action Amended Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief at 3 (unnumbered pages). In addition, Plaintiff asserts that the system for determining child support levels and enforcing payment does not distinguish properly...