City of New York v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 27 May 1999
• Docket Number: Docket No. 97-6182
• Parties: , The CITY OF NEW YORK and Rudolph Giuliani, as Mayor of the City of New York, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The UNITED STATES of America and Janet Reno, as Attorney General of the United States, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 29

179 F.3d 29,

The CITY OF NEW YORK and Rudolph Giuliani, as Mayor of the

City of New York, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The UNITED STATES of America and Janet Reno, as Attorney

General of the United States, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 97-6182

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued June 11, 1998.

Decided May 27, 1999.

Appeal from a judgment dismissing a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (John G. Koeltl, Judge ). Appellants challenged the facial constitutionality of Section 434 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. These Sections invalidate state and local rules that prohibit government employees from voluntarily providing information about illegal aliens to the INS. We hold that Sections 434 and 642 are not facially unconstitutional and affirm.

Deborah R. Douglas, Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York (Jeffrey D. Friedlander, Acting Corporation Counsel, and Kristin M. Helmers, Assistant Corporation Counsel, of counsel), New York, New York, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Martin J. Siegel, Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Mary Jo White, United States Attorney, and Sara L. Shudofsky, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), New York, New York, for Defendants-Appellees.

Helaine Barnett, The Legal Aid Society (Scott A. Rosenberg, Hwan-Hui Helen Lee, of counsel), New York, New York, for Amicus Curiae The Legal Aid Society in support of Plaintiffs-Appellants.

B e f o r e: WINTER, Chief Judge, WALKER, and JACOBS, Circuit Judges.

WINTER, Chief Judge:

The City of New York prohibits its employees from voluntarily providing federal immigration authorities with information concerning the immigration status of any alien. In 1996, Congress passed Section 434 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 ("Welfare Reform Act"), Pub.L. No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105 (1996), and Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("Immigration Reform Act"), Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996). These Sections prohibit state and local governments from limiting their employees in the voluntary provision of information about the immigration status of aliens to the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS"). The City and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (collectively, "the City") appeal from Judge Koeltl's dismissal of their action challenging the facial constitutionality of those enactments. We hold that both Sections survive the City's facial challenge and therefore affirm.

BACKGROUND

In August 1989, Edward Koch, then New York City's mayor, issued Executive Order No. 124. The Order prohibits any City officer or employee from transmitting information regarding the immigration status of any individual to federal immigration authorities unless: (i) such employee's agency is required by law to disclose such information, (ii) an alien explicitly authorizes a City agency to verify his or her immigration status, or (iii) an alien is suspected by a City agency of engaging in criminal behavior. ¹ However, even if a City agency's line workers suspect an alien of criminal activity, the Executive Order prohibits them from transmitting information regarding such alien directly to the federal authorities. Instead, it requires each agency to designate certain officers or employees to receive reports on suspected criminal activity from line workers and to determine on a case by case basis what action, if any, to take on such reports. Mayor Koch's successors, David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani, have reissued the Executive Order.

On August 22, 1996, the President signed the Welfare Reform Act into law. Section 434, entitled "Communication between State and Local Government Agencies and the Immigration and Naturalization Service," provides that no state or local government entity may be restricted from exchanging information with the INS regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of individuals in the United States. ² The Conference Report accompanying the bill explained: "The conferees intend to give State and local officials the authority to communicate with the INS regarding the presence, whereabouts, or activities of illegal aliens.... The conferees believe that immigration law enforcement is as high a priority as other aspects of Federal law enforcement, and that illegal aliens do not have the right to remain in the United States undetected and unapprehended." H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 104-725, at 383 (1996), reprinted in 1996 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2649, 2771.

On September 30, 1996, the Immigration Reform Act was signed into law. Section 642, entitled "Communication between Government Agencies and the Immigration and the Naturalization Service," expands Section 434 by prohibiting any government entity or official from restricting any other government entity or official from exchanging information with the INS about the immigration or citizenship status of any individual. It further provides that no governmental agency--federal, state, or local--may be prohibited from: (i) exchanging such information with the INS; (ii) maintaining such information; or (iii) exchanging such information with any other federal, state, or local government entity. ³ The Report of the Senate Judiciary Committee accompanying the Senate Bill explained that the "acquisition, maintenance, and exchange of immigration-related information by State and local agencies is consistent with, and potentially of considerable assistance to, the Federal regulation of immigration and the achieving of the purposes and objectives of the Immigration and Nationality Act." S.Rep. No. 104-249, at 19-20 (1996).

Eleven days after the Immigration Reform Act was signed by the President, the City commenced this action against the United States (the "Government") for declaratory and injunctive relief, claiming that Sections 434 and 642 do not invalidate the City's Executive Order because they are facially unconstitutional. Specifically, the City contended that Sections 434 and 642, which are directed at state and local government entities (or officials) and not private parties, violate the Tenth Amendment because they directly forbid state and local government entities from controlling the use of information regarding the immigration status of individuals obtained in the course of their official business. The City maintained further that such interference with a state's control over its own workforce--i.e., over its power to determine the duties of its employees with regard to confidential information that the employees acquire in their official capacity--lies outside Congress's plenary power over immigration. Finally, the City argued that Sections 434 and 642 violate the Guarantee Clause of Article IV of the Constitution.

After both parties moved for judgment on the pleadings under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c), the district court granted the Government's motion and dismissed the City's claims, holding that Sections 434 and 642 violate neither the Tenth Amendment nor the Guarantee Clause. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c). See Sheppard v. Beerman, 94 F.3d 823, 827 (2d Cir.1996).

The City's burden in this case is substantial. As the Supreme Court has noted, "[a] facial challenge to a legislative Act is ... the most difficult challenge to mount successfully, since the challenger must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the Act would be valid." United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987). Because the Supreme Court has not recognized an "overbreadth" doctrine outside the limited context of the First Amendment, a showing that a statute "might operate unconstitutionally under some conceivable set of circumstances is insufficient to render it wholly invalid." General Elec. Co. v. New York State Dep't of Labor, 936 F.2d 1448, 1456 (2d Cir.1991); accord United States v. Sage, 92 F.3d 101, 106 (2d Cir.1996).

A. The Tenth Amendment Claim

The Tenth Amendment provides that "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." U.S. Const. amend. X. In New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 157, 112 S.Ct. 2408, 120 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992), the Supreme Court viewed the Tenth Amendment as "confirm[ing] that the power of the Federal Government is subject to limits that may, in a given instance, reserve power to the States." For example, the Tenth Amendment limits the power of Congress to regulate by " 'directly compelling [states] to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program.' " Id. at 161 (quoting Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Ass'n, 452 U.S. 264, 288, 101 S.Ct. 2352, 69 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981)). State governments, the Court explained, are not federal regulatory agencies. See id. at 163, 178. Thus, however plenary Congress's power to legislate in a particular area may be, the Tenth Amendment prohibits Congress from commanding states to administer a federal regulatory program in that area. Moreover, "Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the State's officers directly." Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 98, 117 S.Ct. 2365, 2384, 138 L.Ed.2d 914 (1997).

The City does not dispute that Congress has plenary power to legislate on the subject of aliens. As the Supreme Court explained in Takahashi v. Fish and Game Commission:

The Federal Government has broad constitutional powers in determining what aliens shall be admitted to the United States, the period they may remain, regulation of their conduct before naturalization, and the terms and conditions of their naturalization.

334 U.S. 410, 419, 68...