Doe v. McIntire

No. 00-3014-F (Mass. Super. Ct. filed Mar. 14, 2001) ; Clearinghouse Number: 53851

Description

Massachusetts Court Rejects Equal Protection Challenge to Six-Month Residency Requirement for State’s Alien Cash Assistance Program

Abstract

A Massachusetts court held that the requirement that legal aliens reside in the state six months before becoming eligible for cash assistance from a state-funded welfare program did not violate the equal protection clause of the federal or state constitution. Two legal aliens who did not meet the residency requirement claimed, in suing the commissioner of the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance, that the requirement violated federal and state equal protection guarantees, the privileges and immunities clause of the U.S. Constitution, and limitations in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act on state authority to restrict benefits to immigrants. The residency requirement is part of a program for legal immigrants who are ineligible for federal cash assistance. The court granted defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment on the constitutional issues. The court found that the residency requirement did not conflict with the exclusive federal power to regulate immigration because it was the type of requirement the Act authorized to the states. The court applied a rational-basis analysis to the equal protection claim because it concluded that the state legislature acted benignly toward aliens by creating a program to ameliorate the hardship of their exclusion from federal benefits; the government classification affected only a subgroup of aliens; and the classification did not disadvantage citizens. Following U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the court found the residency requirement constitutional under the rational-basis test.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Plaintiffs represented by Deborah Harris, Iris Gomez, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, 99 Chauncy Street, Suite 500, Boston MA 02111 (617.357.0700 x313, x331); Sarah Levy, Greater Boston Legal Services, 197 Friend Street, Boston MA 02114 (617.371.1234); James Breslauer, Neighborhood Legal Services, 170 Common Street, Suite 300, Lawrence MA 01840 (978.686.6900 x203)
Docket Date
2001-05-14 00:00:00+00:00