California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. v. Legal Services Corp.
| Decision Date | 26 October 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-16734,89-16734 |
| Citation | 917 F.2d 1171 |
| Parties | , 17 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1240 CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC.; American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations; International Ladies' Garment Workers Union; Maria Rita Aguilar; and Maria F. Castillo, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION; Terrance J. Wear, President; and Legal Services Corporation Pacific Regional Office, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Hugh J. Cadden and Robert G. Levy, Barger & Wolen, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellants.
Stephen P. Berzon, Michael Rubin, Robert C. Bell, Jr., Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon & Rubin, Robert Rubin, San Francisco Lawyers Committee for Urban Affairs, San Francisco, Cal., Susan Drake, National Immigration Law Center, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Before CHOY, FARRIS and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges.
Legal Services Corporation (LSC) appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) in CRLA's class action to enjoin the enforcement of a regulation promulgated by LSC. 727 F.Supp. 553. 1 The regulation prohibits legal services programs from using funds supplied by LSC to provide legal services to permanent resident aliens who obtain their status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), Pub.L. No. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359 (1986). 2 The question on this appeal is whether the district court correctly concluded that legal services is not a program of "financial assistance" within the meaning of Section 245A(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(h)(1)(A)(i). We affirm.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) authorized the granting of legalization to aliens ("amnesty aliens") who had been present in the United States in an unlawful status since January, 1982. 3 Congress included in IRCA a provision entitled "temporary disqualification of newly legalized aliens from receiving certain public welfare assistance," 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(h). That section, which is the provision at issue on this appeal, provided that newly legalized aliens would be ineligible for a period of five years for "any program of financial assistance furnished under Federal law (whether through grant, loan, guarantee, or otherwise) on the basis of financial need, as such programs are identified by the Attorney General ... (but in any event including the program of aid to families with dependent children....)" 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(h)(1)(A)(i).
On October 19, 1988 defendant LSC proposed the regulation that is at issue on this appeal. The proposed regulation banned the use of LSC funds to provide legal services to amnesty aliens on the basis of section 1255a(h), even though the Attorney General had not yet identified legal services as a "program of financial assistance." LSC issued its regulation on April 27, 1989, with a proposed effective date of May 31, 1989.
CRLA filed this action on May 26, 1989 and applied for a temporary restraining order to enjoin implementation of the regulation. CRLA argued that the regulation was contrary to law, because legal services was not a program of financial assistance within the plain meaning of the INA. It further argued that LSC lacked authority to issue its regulation in the absence of a designation of legal services as a program of financial assistance by the Attorney General.
On May 26, 1989 the district court granted CRLA's application for provisional class certification and a temporary restraining order. 4 On June 8, 1989, a preliminary injunction hearing was held. Defendants stipulated to keeping the temporary injunction in effect until the court issued a final decision on the merits.
On July 12, 1989, the Attorney General issued a final rule which designated legal services as a program of financial assistance covered by the five year ban in Section 245A(h)(1)(A)(i). 54 Fed.Reg. 29434, 29436 (July 12, 1989). 5 The final rule adopted by the Attorney General interpreted "financial assistance" as follows:
The Department of Justice believes that it is irrelevant that legal services are not financial assistance. The statute provides that legalized aliens are not eligible for certain kinds of programs, namely, those involving "financial assistance furnished on the basis of Federal law * * * on the basis of financial need." (sic). Legal services provided to individuals by the Legal Services Corporation do constitute benefits from such a program.
... It is the Department's view that the focus of the inquiry as to whether a benefit comes from a "program of financial assistance furnished under federal law * * * on the basis of financial need" should not be ... the form the benefit to the ultimate recipient takes, whether a cash grant (or loan, loan guarantee, etc.) or goods or services, but rather that the benefit is financed with Federal funds that are targeted to those in financial need.
On the basis of the Attorney General's final rule, LSC moved to vacate the stipulated injunction against LSC's regulation. On August 17, 1989, the district court denied LSC's motion. The parties then filed cross-motions for summary judgment.
On November 30, 1989, the district court granted CRLA's motions for class certification and summary judgment, and permanently enjoined LSC from implementing LSC's five-year ban on providing legal services to Amnesty aliens. The district court concluded that "the statutory text demonstrates that Congress did not intend the term 'financial assistance' to include service programs such as legal services" and that the Attorney General's designation was thus contrary to the clear intent of Congress. The district court also held that plaintiffs AFL-CIO and ILGWU had standing.
A grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Kruso v. Int'l Tel. & Tel.
Corp., 872 F.2d 1416, 1421 (9th Cir.1989). The appellate court must determine, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court correctly applied the substantive law. Tzung v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., 873 F.2d 1338, 1339-40 (9th Cir.1989). The interpretation of a statute is a question of law reviewed de novo. Saratoga Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Fed. Home Loan Bank Bd., 879 F.2d 689, 691 (9th Cir.1989). The district court's grant of permanent injunctive relief is reviewed for an application of erroneous legal principles. Guadamuz v. Bowen, 859 F.2d 762, 766 (9th Cir.1988) (citing SEC v. Goldfield Deep Mines Co. of Nevada, 758 F.2d 459, 465 (9th Cir.1985)).
The issue of the unions' standing is subject to de novo review. American Postal Workers Union v. United States Postal Serv., 861 F.2d 211, 213 (9th Cir.1988).
A district court's decision to grant or deny class certification is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Moore v. Hughes Helicopters, Inc., 708 F.2d 475, 479 (9th Cir.1983).
LSC argues that union plaintiffs AFL-CIO and ILGWU have failed to demonstrate that they or any of their members will suffer harm from the legal services ban and that the two unions thus lack standing to challenge the regulation. This contention is without merit.
"[A]n association has standing to bring suit on behalf of its members when: (a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization's purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit." Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 343, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 2441, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977). See also International Union, UAW v. Brock, 477 U.S. 274, 288-90, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 2531-33, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986).
LSC argues that the unions fail the test for associational standing for two reasons. First, it argues that the interest the unions seek to protect is not germane to their purpose. We disagree. The Supreme Court, in considering the question of a union's standing to challenge an agency's regulation depriving its members of benefits under the Trade Act of 1974, looked to that union's constitution to determine that the interests the union sought to protect were germane to that organization's purpose. The Court noted that the union had an interest in obtaining benefits for its workers and had, as one of its stated goals, working for such legislation on a national scale. International Union, UAW, 477 U.S. at 286, 106 S.Ct. at 2430. In the present case, the unions have set forth institutional goals of protecting a broad range of rights for workers. These purposes are reflected in the unions' constitutions, and are sufficient to meet the requirements for associational standing. 6
Second, LSC argues that the unions have not shown that any of their members have standing to sue in their own right, since plaintiffs have not shown that any union member has actually sought or been denied access to legal services. However, CRLA alleged in its complaint that "[m]any members of the AFL-CIO are Sec. 245A legal residents who utilize LSC funded legal services programs." With respect to the ILGWU, CRLA alleged that many of its members are Sec. 245A legal residents who "suffer from the full range of legal problems affecting the working poor and are financially eligible for legal services." These members would clearly be adversely affected
if the LSC regulation is enforced. We find these facts, which LSC failed to rebut below, sufficient to establish the unions' standing to sue.
The district court certified a class consisting of two subclasses:...
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