Herrera v. Finan

• Decision Date: 31 March 2016
• Docket Number: Civil Action No.: 7:14-CV-2255-BHH
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
• Parties: Angelica Rocha Herrera, Plaintiff, v. John L. Finan, et al., Defendants.

176 F.Supp.3d 549

Angelica Rocha Herrera, Plaintiff,

v.John L. Finan, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No.: 7:14-CV-2255-BHH

United States District Court, D. South Carolina, Spartanburg Division.

Signed March 31, 2016

Scott M. Tyler, Moore and Van Allen, Charlotte, NC, Amy R. Pedersen, Thomas Andrew Saenz, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Maldef, Washington, DC, Jorge Martin Castillo, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Maldef, Los Angeles, CA, for Plaintiff.

Andrew F. Lindemann, Davidson Morrison and Lindemann, Columbia, SC, for Defendants.

Opinion and Order

Bruce Howe Hendricks

, United States District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment and for a permanent injunction (ECF No. 38) and Defendants' motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 40). For the reasons set forth in this Order, Plaintiff's motion is denied, Defendants' motion is granted, and the suit is dismissed in its entirety.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Angelica Rocha Herrera (“Plaintiff” or “Ms. Rocha”) is a U.S. citizen who was born in Texas and has lived in South Carolina nearly her entire life. During the process of applying to two different South Carolina post-secondary education institutions, South Carolina law and regulations were applied in a manner that designated her as a non-resident for college tuition and scholarship purposes, despite over fifteen (15) years of continuous residency in South Carolina. Plaintiff asserts that she was treated fundamentally differently than similarly situated U.S. citizens and denied residency based solely on the unlawful immigration status of her parents. The Commissioners of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (the “Commission,” “CHE,” or “Defendants”) administer South Carolina's state tuition and financial aid regulatory framework, including promulgation of the regulations that were applied to preclude Plaintiff from eligibility for in-state tuition and other financial benefits otherwise afforded to U.S. citizens who are residents of South Carolina. Defendants assert that they did not make the residency determination in Plaintiff's case, and indeed do not make the residency determination in any particular case. They further argue that they cannot be held responsible when financial aid and admissions personnel at various South Carolina colleges and universities apply the regulations they promulgate in a putatively unconstitutional manner. Curiously, neither college to which Plaintiff applied and from which she received a determination of non-residency is a party to this lawsuit.

In her motion, Plaintiff asserts that summary judgment is appropriate on the question of Defendants' liability for alleged unconstitutional withholding of residency status, but argues that the damages Plaintiff suffered as a result include questions of fact properly left for trial. Moreover, Plaintiff avers that as a matter of law, the Court should permanently enjoin Defendants from unconstitutionally withholding residency status to otherwise qualified U.S. citizens. In their motion, the Defendants present a number of separate and independent bases for summary judgment, including the fact that not a single named Defendant, nor “the Commission” as a whole, was involved in the decision to withhold residency status from Plaintiff. The Defendants assert that the regulations promulgated by the Commission merely create a rebuttable presumption that a dependent student's residency mirrors that of their parent(s) and do not target students whose parents are undocumented in particular. Moreover, Defendants aver that the same statutory and regulatory scheme that Plaintiff is now challenging as unconstitutional has been applied to grant residency to another student in exactly the same position as Plaintiff, a U.S. citizen dependent student whose parents are undocumented immigrants.

Plaintiff filed her complaint on June 10, 2014, alleging that the Chairman and individual commissioners of the CHE, in their individual and official capacities, violated guarantees of Equal Protection, Substantive Due Process, and Privileges and Immunities included within the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (See ECF No. 1.) Her fundamental claim is that by administering residency determination regulations in a manner to classify U.S. citizens as non-residents of South Carolina on the basis of their parents' immigration status Defendants have betrayed these core protections of the Fourteenth Amendment. As such, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983

, Plaintiff seeks a declaration from this Court that S.C. Code § 59–112–20 and S.C. Code of Regs. §§ 62–602(C) and 62–603(B) are unconstitutional on their faces and/or as applied to Plaintiff. Plaintiff further seeks restitution, damages, and an award of costs and attorneys' fees.

Plaintiff was born in Dallas, Texas, and moved to Greenville, South Carolina as a toddler. (Rocha Decl. ¶¶ 2-3, ECF No. 38-2.) She has spent virtually her whole life living with her family in South Carolina. (Id. at ¶¶ 3-4.) Her family pays taxes in South Carolina as residents. (Id. at ¶ 8.) Plaintiff attended Greenville public schools for her entire primary and secondary education career. (Id. at ¶ 4.) She has a South Carolina driver's license. (Id. at ¶ 6; see also Castillo Decl. Ex. I, ECF No. 39-9 (South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles form indicating proof of state residency as prerequisite for issuance of a driver's license and DMV form indicating proof of state residency requirement for a driver's license).) For all intents and purposes, South Carolina is Plaintiff's home state in the colloquial sense of the term.

As a result of her academic success, Plaintiff was awarded a $2,000 yearly scholarship by the School District of Greenville County, called the Sirrine Scholarship. (Converse Dep. Exs. 20, 25, ECF No. 39-6 at 5-6; Castillo Decl. Ex. H., ECF No. 39-8.)¹ Plaintiff also met the academic requirements for the South Carolina Legislative Incentive for Future Excellence (“LIFE”) Scholarship, which provides South Carolina residents up to $5,000 scholarship, renewable up to four years. (See Converse Dep. Exs. 4, 5, ECF No. 39-6 at 3-4); see also S.C. Code §§ 59–149–10(E)

, 59–149–50(D) ; S.C. Code of Reg. §§ 62–1200.10(A)(3), 62–1200.65(A).

Plaintiff applied to and was accepted into the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (“CERRA”) Teaching Fellowship, a special program offered to South Carolina residents who have demonstrated high academic achievement, a history of public service, and a desire to teach in South Carolina. (Rocha Decl. ¶ 10, ECF No. 38-2; Castillo Decl. Ex. U, ECF No. 39-21.) The CERRA Teaching Fellowship program is available at a small selection of higher education institutions in South Carolina, including the University of South Carolina-Upstate (“USC-Upstate”). (Castillo Decl. Ex. U, ECF No. 39-21.) Fellows participate in specialized educational and professional development opportunities, and receive up to $6,000 annually in financial aid for four years. (Id. ) In exchange for these unique opportunities and the financial assistance, CERRA fellows commit to teaching in South Carolina primary or secondary schools for at least four years. (Id. )

During the process of collegiate enrollment at USC-Upstate and Converse College (“Converse”), Plaintiff was classified as a non-resident for tuition and scholarship purposes. Plaintiff attempted to attend both USC-Upstate and Converse as a resident of South Carolina eligible for instate tuition, the LIFE Scholarship, and other state aid. By way of their interpretation of South Carolina laws and CHE regulations, admissions and financial aid personnel at both institutions determined that Ms. Rocha was not a state resident because she was a dependent of her parents, whose immigration status precluded a positive residency finding.² (See Rocha Dep. Ex. 3, ECF No. 39-1 at 9; Collins Dep. Exs. 5, 8, ECF No. 39-5 at 5-6.) Plaintiff is unable to produce any documentation to substantiate lawful immigration status on the part of her parents because there is none. (See Rocha Cont'd Dep. 8:9-21, 12:9-14:15, ECF No. 39-2.) Plaintiff asserts that she submitted various documents, such as a utility bill, her birth certificate, and her parents' tax documents, to financial aid personnel at USC-Upstate and Converse in an attempt to provide bona fides of residency in South Carolina, but that these efforts were to no avail. (Rocha Decl. ¶¶ 23-26, 29-30, 34, 39-40, ECF No. 38-2.)

Plaintiff first tried to enroll at USC-Upstate. (Rocha Decl. ¶ 11, ECF No. 38-2.) Based upon her application information, USC-Upstate did not make a final determination of Plaintiff's South Carolina residency at that time and considered it pending. (See Castillo Decl. Exs. Q, R, ECF Nos. 39–17, 39–18.) Plaintiff next completed an electronic residency application on the USC-Upstate student portal in an attempt to provide additional information to establish state residency. (Rocha Decl. ¶¶ 13-15, ECF No. 38-2; USC-Upstate Dep. Exs. 3, 15, ECF No. 39-4.) On the electronic residency application, Plaintiff indicated that her father held Georgia driver's license no. 7546957 issued on July 5, 2011. (USC-Upstate Dep. Exs. 15, ECF No. 39-4 at 12.) When questioned about the Georgia driver's license in a deposition, Plaintiff stated, “I was told to put any information in there because I couldn't continue my enrollment process if I didn't fill that portion out.” (Rocha Cont'd Dep. 20:10-20:23, ECF No. 40-3.) Defendants assert that later in the deposition Plaintiff admitted that the information regarding the Georgia driver's license was false. (ECF No. 40-1 at 22; see Rocha Cont'd Dep. 20, 22.)³ Plaintiff alleges that on two separate occasions USC-Upstate personnel informed her that the applicable law and regulations precluded them from classifying her as a South Carolina resident without her producing all...