Service Mach. & Shipbuilding Corp. v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 12 May 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1520,79-1520
• Citation: 617 F.2d 70
• Parties: 92 Lab.Cas. P 55,306 SERVICE MACHINE & SHIPBUILDING CORP. et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Edwin W. EDWARDS et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 70

617 F.2d 70

92 Lab.Cas. P 55,306

SERVICE MACHINE & SHIPBUILDING CORP. et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Edwin W. EDWARDS et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 79-1520.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

May 12, 1980.

Am. Civil Liberties Union Foundation of La., Inc., School of Law, M. David Gelfand, New Orleans, La., Aycock, Horne, Caldwell, Coleman & Suncan, Andrew Reed, Morgan City, La., Howell, Kellogg & Bayer, R. James Kellogg, George Strickler, New Orleans, La., for Service Machine, Southern Mutual Help Assn. & Forest Reuben.

J. Marvin Montgomery, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, La., for Guste & edwards.

Anthony J. Guarisco, Michael Aloise, Jr., Morgan City, La., for Robert Stoute.

Sanford Jay Rosen, San Francisco, Cal., amicus curiae, for National Council of Churches of Christ in U.S., et al.

Vilma S. Martinez, San Francisco, Cal., amicus curiae, for Mexican Am. Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.

Morris J. Baller, San Francisco, Cal., David A. Maestas, Washington, D. C., amicus curiae, for National Council of La Raza, Inc.

Edward M. Leonard, Jr., Morgan City, La., amicus curiae, for St. Mary Parish Police Jury & Police Jurors Individually.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Before TJOFLAT and VANCE, Circuit Judges, and ALLGOOD, ^* District Judge.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

This appeal calls into question the constitutionality of the St. Mary Parish, Louisiana worker registration ordinance. In the proceedings below, the district court upheld the ordinance and refused to enjoin the registration system the ordinance established. 466 F.Supp. 1200 (W.D.La.1979). A panel of this court granted an injunction pending appeal, requiring that all registration under the system cease, and this expedited appeal followed.

I

St. Mary Parish has experienced rapid population growth as a result of the development of the offshore oil and gas industry, and large numbers of transient workers have been attracted to the area by the employment opportunities. The St. Mary Parish Police Jury believed that the transient laborers contributed significantly to the local crime rate. In an effort to alleviate the crime problem, the Parish Police Jury, pursuant to the authority granted by 33 La.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 1236(41) (West Supp.1980), ¹ adopted Ordinance No. 837, ² which established the worker registration system here under constitutional attack.

The ordinance was designed to provide for the identification and registration of itinerant laborers seeking employment within St. Mary Parish. "Itinerant laborers" are defined as (1) those who travel into St. Mary Parish seeking employment and (2) those gainfully employed in the parish who seek to change employment. All employers of itinerant laborers are to have each of them, prior to employment, complete an application-identification form that requires the photograph and fingerprints of the laborer. The employer then must furnish this information to the Parish Police Jury. Any employer who violates the ordinance is subject to fine or imprisonment. The ordinance authorizes licensees to issue these application forms and identification cards for a fee not to exceed ten dollars. The evidence indicates that the ten dollar fee was universally charged by the licensees.

Service Machine & Shipbuilding Corporation is an employer subject to the ordinance, and Forest Rubin, another appellant, is a potential employee within the parish. They contend in this appeal that the ordinance and the registration system impermissibly infringe on various constitutional rights: (1) the right to travel; (2) the right to work and change jobs; (3) the right of privacy; (4) the equal protection of the laws; (5) the due process of law; and (6) rights secured under the commerce clause. Because we hold that the St. Mary Parish Ordinance and worker registration system violate the commerce clause, we need not address the merits of the other grounds advanced by the appellants.

II

In dismissing the contention that the ordinance violates the commerce clause, U.S.Const art. I, § 8, cl. 3, the district court first held that the ordinance did not discriminate between parish and non-parish job applicants, since most resident job applicants were required to comply with the ordinance to the same extent as job applicants who traveled into the parish. The court recognized, however, that the ordinance affected interstate commerce insofar as it applied to those who traveled into the parish. Because the ordinance impaired interstate commerce, the court applied the test of Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona, 325 U.S. 761, 65 S.Ct. 1515, 89 L.Ed. 1915 (1945), and determined that the infringement was rationally related to the legitimate parish interest in controlling crime, and that the minimal burden on interstate commerce was far outweighed by this legitimate interest. 466 F.Supp. at 1208. In light of more recent Supreme Court pronouncements on the applicable standard for reviewing state or local laws that burden interstate commerce, we reverse.

The commerce clause grants to Congress the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. This affirmative grant necessarily imposes corresponding limitations on the powers of states to regulate areas where Congress has assumed primary responsibility, A & P Tea Co. v. Cottrell, 424 U.S. 366, 370-71, 96 S.Ct. 923, 927, 47 L.Ed.2d 55 (1976), but does not preclude every state law that affects interstate commerce. H.P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. DuMond, 336 U.S. 525, 531-32, 69 S.Ct. 657, 661-62, 93 L.Ed. 865 (1949). "(I)n areas where activities of legitimate local concern overlap with the national interests expressed by the Commerce Clause where local and national powers are concurrent the Court in the absence of congressional guidance is called upon to make 'delicate adjustment of the conflicting state and federal claims' . . . ." A & P Tea Co. v. Cottrell, 424 U.S. at 371, 96 S.Ct. at 928, quoting H.P. Hood & Sons, Inc., 336 U.S. at 553, 69 S.Ct. at 679 (Black, J., dissenting). Congress has not preempted state and local laws in the area of crime control. Thus, this court must examine the challenged ordinance to determine whether the measures taken by St. Mary Parish run afoul of the commerce clause's "overriding requirement of a national 'common market.' " Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Commission, 432 U.S. 333, 350, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 2445, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977).

The movement of persons falls within the protection of the commerce clause, Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160, 172, 62 S.Ct. 164, 166, 86 L.Ed. 119 (1941), so the ordinance must be subjected to scrutiny under the commerce clause. In addition, a challenged law need not be a state statute to violate the commerce clause. A local ordinance can also create an unlawful infringement on interstate commerce. See Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U.S. 349, 71 S.Ct. 295, 95 L.Ed. 329 (1951).

The appropriate standard for assaying a local law affecting interstate commerce was most recently stated in Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U.S. 322, 99 S.Ct. 1727, 60 L.Ed. 250 (1979):

Under that general rule we must inquire (1) whether the challenged statute regulates evenhandedly with only "incidental" effects on interstate commerce, or discriminates against interstate commerce either on its face or in practical effect; (2) whether the statute serves a legitimate local purpose; and, if so, (3) whether alternative means could promote this local purpose as well without discriminating against interstate commerce. The burden to show discrimination rests on the party challenging the validity of the statute, but "(w)hen discrimination against commerce . . . is demonstrated, the burden falls on the State to justify it both in terms of the local benefits flowing from the statute and the unavailability of nondiscriminatory alternatives adequate to preserve the local interests at stake." Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Commission, 432 U.S. 333, 353, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 2446, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977).

441 U.S. at 336, 99 S.Ct. at 1736. See Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 142, 90 S.Ct. 844, 847, 25 L.Ed.2d 174 (1970).

Our first task, then, is to determine whether the ordinance regulates evenhandedly, or discriminates against interstate commerce. The type of discrimination that has been the focus of the Supreme Court's analysis occurs when a state or local law distinguishes between commerce originating within a state and commerce originating outside the state. Most often this discrimination takes the form of economic protectionism, and the Court has consistently held this type of parochial legislation constitutionally invalid. See, e. g., City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U.S. 617, 98 S.Ct. 2531, 57 L.Ed.2d 475 (1978); Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 92 L.Ed. 1460 (1948); Baldwin v. G.A.F. Seelig, 294 U.S. 511, 55 S.Ct. 497, 79 L.Ed. 1032 (1935). The Court also has struck down state attempts to accord its own residents a preferred right of access over nonresidents to resources located within its borders. See, e. g., Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U.S. 322, 99 S.Ct. 1727, 60 L.Ed. 250; Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U.S. 553, 43 S.Ct. 658, 67 L.Ed. 1117 (1923). Prohibited discrimination has been found even when a statute on its face does not distinguish between in-state and out-of-state commerce, but in practical effect, nevertheless, favors resident over nonresident producers. See Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Commission, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed. 383 (1977).

As the preceding cases indicate, the Supreme Court has found discrimination under laws that favor residents vis-a-vis nonresidents, where there is no reason, apart from origin, to treat them differently. Here, Ordinance No. 837 discriminates against interstate commerce. Although the ordinance at first glance appears to require registration of all seeking employment, both resident and...