Art. IV P & I Clause and Nonresident Tuition

[Bryan Wildenthal]

Indeed.  By Supreme Court ruling, new state residents have a constitutional
right to votr within 30 days of arrival.  I don't think any state is that
generous in granting in-state university tuition/admission status.

I have long thought that lengthy (eg, one year) in-state college residency
requirements are unconstitutional.  Someone needs to write about it (I plan
to, but don't hold your breath anyone).  The early 1970s cases cited by
Saenz v Roe as establishing the constitutionality of such waiting periods
were summary affirmances of lower court decisions, based on reasoning now
clearly out of date under Saenz.

For the textualists or originalists on our list, is it a matter of concern
that the 14th amendment says a U.S. citizen becomes a state citizen simply
upon "residing" within a state, whereas the historical test for "domicile"
(which originated before the 14th amendment), as we all know from Civ Pro,
requires residence PLUS some variation on "intent to remain indefinitely"?
Why should the state have any right to poke its nose or read minds into
someone's future intent, as long as they have in fact established simple,
present, bona fide residence in a state (not trying to "straddle" residence
in two states or fraudulently "double-dip," for example)?

I realize the classic state concern with conserving public resources for
state residents (especially longtime residents), but isn't the very purpose
of art IV P&I, 14th am sec. 1, and related free-migration principles to
override that tempting tendency toward state parochialism and make us "one
people"?

Bryan Wildenthal
Thomas Jefferson School of Law

> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Funk [mailto:funk at LCLARK.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 2:23 PM
> To: CONLAWPROF at listserv.ucla.edu
> Subject: Re: Art. IV P & I Clause and Nonresident Tuition
>
>
> Craig Oren wrote:
>
> >Maybe we should keep in mind that the tuition disparity
> applies only to
> >nonresidents. Once a student can qualify as a resident, the disparity
> >disappears.
> >
> Not necessarily so.  Different states have different rules concerning
> qualification for in-state tuition.  In some a person may qualify to
> vote in the state but not to receive in-state tuition.
>
> Bill Funk
> Lewis & Clark Law School
>