State of N.J. v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 29 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-5685,95-5685
• Citation: 91 F.3d 463
• Parties: STATE OF NEW JERSEY; Christine Todd Whitman; William H. Fauver; Leo Klagholz, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America; Janet Reno; Doris Meissner; Alice M. Rivlin.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 463

91 F.3d 463

65 USLW 2082

STATE OF NEW JERSEY; Christine Todd Whitman; William H.

Fauver; Leo Klagholz, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America; Janet Reno; Doris Meissner;

Alice M. Rivlin.

No. 95-5685.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued May 24, 1996.

Decided July 29, 1996.

Deborah T. Poritz, Attorney General of New Jersey, Joseph L. Yannotti, Jerry Fischer (Argued), Andrew Sapolnick, Office of Attorney General of New Jersey, Trenton, NJ, for Appellants.

Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, Faith S. Hochberg, United States Attorney, Mark B. Stern (Argued), Ellen D. Katz, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Appellees.

Before: SLOVITER, Chief Judge, SAROKIN and OAKES, ^* Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Chief Judge.

I. FACTS

The State of New Jersey, its governor, Christine Todd Whitman, Corrections Commissioner William H. Fauver and Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz (collectively New Jersey or the state) have sued the United States, Attorney General Janet Reno, Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service Doris Meissner, and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Alice Rivlin (collectively the United States) seeking compensation for costs incurred by New Jersey in incarcerating and educating illegal aliens.

New Jersey alleges that "[a]s a direct result of the federal government's failure to control its international borders and implement and abide by its laws, the State of New Jersey is improperly forced to bear the financial and administrative costs of imprisonment of illegal aliens who are convicted of crimes in New Jersey ... [as well as the] costs of education of illegal aliens." App. at 25. These costs for state fiscal year 1994 (ending June 30, 1994) are alleged to have been approximately $50.5 million for incarceration, App. at 26, and approximately $162 million for education, App. at 27. New Jersey seeks a declaratory judgment that it has a right to reimbursement of these costs from the federal government, and an injunction and/or writ of mandamus requiring defendants to disburse funds from the United States Treasury to the state for these costs.

New Jersey grounds its eight count complaint on the following statutory and constitutional provisions: sections of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 providing for the collection of penalties and expenses by the Attorney General and the reimbursement of states by the Attorney General for costs incurred for the imprisonment of illegal aliens convicted of state felonies, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1365(a); the Invasion and Guarantee Clauses of Article IV, § 4 of the U.S. Constitution; the Tenth Amendment; the Naturalization Clause of Article I, § 8; the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment; and generalized principles of state sovereignty.

The district court granted the United States' motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), ruling that New Jersey's constitutional claims presented nonjusticiable political questions and that its statutory claims were not subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedures Act. This appeal followed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and our review is plenary.

II. DISCUSSION

We note at the outset that five other states have also filed similar actions. Each case has been dismissed by the district court under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) and in each of the two cases so far to have reached the appellate courts, the respective court of appeals has affirmed the dismissal. See Texas v. United States, No. B-94-228 (S.D.Tex. Aug. 7, 1995), appeal pending, No. 95-40721 (5th Cir.); Arizona v. United States, No. 94-0866 (D.Ariz. Apr. 18, 1995), appeal pending, No. 95-15980 (9th Cir.); Padavan v. United States, No. 94-CV-1341 (N.D.N.Y., Apr. 18, 1995), affirmed, 82 F.3d 23 (2d Cir.1996); California v. United States, No. 94-0674-K (S.D.Cal. Mar. 3, 1995), appeal pending, No. 95-55490 (9th Cir.); Chiles v. United States, 874 F.Supp. 1334 (S.D.Fla.1994), affirmed, 69 F.3d 1094 (11th Cir.1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1674, 134 L.Ed.2d 777 (1996).

A. Constitutional Claims

Plaintiffs present a number of novel constitutional claims. We have considerable doubt as to whether these claims are even colorable, but, in any event, we agree with the district court's conclusion that they are non-justiciable. Nonetheless, we examine each claim briefly in turn before considering the political question doctrine.

1. Tenth Amendment

In its oral argument, New Jersey placed its principal focus on the Tenth Amendment. In its complaint, New Jersey alleges that "[b]y forcing the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey to absorb the costs of incarcerating and educating illegal aliens, the United States ... has usurped the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey of their rights, under the Tenth Amendment, to determine the manner in which their tax funds and State resources are expended." App. at 31.

The Tenth Amendment makes explicit a fundamental precept of the governmental structure defined by our Constitution: that the federal government's powers are limited to those enumerated. Thus, those "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.

As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the federal government, which has considerable power to regulate individuals directly and to encourage states to adopt certain legislative programs by, for example, attaching conditions to the receipt of federal funds, cannot require the states to govern according to its instructions. Thus "Congress may not simply 'commandee[r] the legislative processes of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program.' " New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 161, 112 S.Ct. 2408, 2420-21, 120 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992) (quoting Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., 452 U.S. 264, 288, 101 S.Ct. 2352, 2366, 69 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981)).

In the decision in New York, the Court held that a federal statute that required In contrast, here the federal government has issued no directive to the State of New Jersey. Neither the state's incarceration of illegal aliens nor its obligation to educate illegal aliens results from any command by Congress. The state has made its own decision to prosecute illegal aliens for acts they committed in violation of New Jersey's own criminal code and its education of illegal aliens does not derive from any Congressional or executive directive, but from the Constitution itself, as construed by the Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 230, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 2401-02, 72 L.Ed.2d 786 (1982).

                states either to regulate the disposal of radioactive waste pursuant to Congress' direction or take title and possession of radioactive wastes generated within their borders "crossed the line distinguishing encouragement from coercion."  505 U.S. at 175, 112 S.Ct. at 2427-28.   Either option--whether adoption of Congress' regulatory scheme or taking title to radioactive wastes--required a state to govern according to Congress' instructions.  Because either option standing alone would be beyond Congress' authority, "it follows that Congress lacks the power to offer the States a choice between the two."  Id. at 176, 112 S.Ct. at 2428-29
                

The state seeks to add another link to the causal chain, asserting that it is not simply the state's criminal code or its constitutional obligations that have caused it to make the large expenditures it complains of, but rather the federal government's failure to adequately enforce the immigration laws. But no precedent suggests that inaction by Congress or the Executive Branch constitutes the kind of coercion that violates the Tenth Amendment. As defendants succinctly state in their brief, "[t]he Tenth Amendment provides a shield against the federal exercise of powers reserved to the states, not a sword to compel federal action." Appellees' Brief at 25. See Padavan, 82 F.3d at 28-29 (rejecting similar Tenth Amendment claim by New York State).

2. Naturalization Clause

One of Congress' specifically enumerated powers under Article I, section 8 of the Constitution is "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization." Count VI of the complaint alleges that because power over immigration matters has thus been delegated to the federal government, "the State of New Jersey is powerless to effectively resolve the economic problems caused by the invasion of illegal immigrants into the State," and it further alleges that defendants, in failing to implement their laws and policies, have "forced the State of New Jersey, to bear the burden of a responsibility which is that of the Nation as a whole pursuant to [the Naturalization Clause]." App. at 33.

Beyond its conclusory statement that "[t]his encroachment upon the resources of the State of New Jersey is constitutionally violative and impermissibly infringes upon the fundamental right of the State to determine proper allocation of its resources," id., New Jersey offers no reason why Congressional action pursuant to a power delegated to Congress by the Constitution that results in the indirect imposition of some cost on the states is an unconstitutional infringement on state sovereignty. Such an argument is even more tenuous in light of the Court's decision in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528, 105 S.Ct. 1005, 83 L.Ed.2d 1016 (1985), where the Court upheld the imposition of minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act on a local public mass-transit authority, a far more direct congressional imposition of cost. It follows that there is no basis for a claim that the Constitution has been violated by the federal government's inaction, which allegedly has set in motion events that have indirectly caused the state to incur costs. See Padavan, 82 F.3d...