US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
ANDERSON, DIRECTOR, CALIFORNIA DEPART MENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, ET AL. v. GREEN ET AL.
Subscribe to Cases that cite 513 U.S. 557OCTOBER TERM, 1994
Syllabus
ANDERSON, DIRECTOR, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, ET AL. v.
GREEN ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
No. 94-197. Argued January 17, 1995-Decided February 22,1995
The Federal Government partially reimburses States for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs that either comply with all federal prescriptions or receive a waiver from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Respondents, new residents of California, challenged the constitutionality of a California statute limiting new residents, for the first year they live in the State, to the benefits paid in the State from which they came; respondents maintain that the payment differential between new and long-term residents burdens interstate migration and thus violates the right to travel recognized in Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618. The District Court enjoined the payment differential, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: No justiciable controversy is before this Court because the case in its current posture is not ripe. The state statute provides that the differential will not take effect absent an HHS waiver. The HHS waiver in effect at the time the lower courts ruled was vacated by the Court of Appeals in a separate proceeding. The Secretary did not seek this Court's review of that Court of Appeals decision. Absent a new HHS waiver, the State will continue to treat respondents the same way it treats long-term California residents. Thus, the parties have no live dispute now, and whether one will arise in the future is conjectural. This impediment to dispositive adjudication requires that the prior judgments in this case be vacated.
26 F.3d 95, vacated and remanded.
Theodore Garel is, Deputy Attorney General of California, argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General, Charlton G. Holland III, Assistant Attorney General, Dennis Eckhart, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Andrea Lynn Hoch, Deputy Attorney General.
Per Curiam
Kathleen M. Sullivan argued the cause for respondents.
With her on the brief were Sarah E. Kurtz, Hope G. Nakamura, Peter H. Reid, Mark D. Rosenbaum, Grace A. Galligher, and Steven Shapiro. *
PER CURIAM.
Under Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), 49 Stat. 627, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 601 et seq., the Federal Government partially reimburses States for welfare programs that either comply with all federal prescriptions or receive a waiver from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). 42 U. S. C. § 1315. California seeks to change its AFDC program by limiting new residents, for the first year they live in California, to the benefits paid in the State from which they came. See Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code Ann. § 11450.03 (West Supp. 1994). Green and other new residents who receive AFDC benefits challenged the constitutionality of this California statute in a federal court action; they maintain that the payment differential between new and long-term residents burdens interstate migration and thus violates the right to travel recognized in Shapiro v.
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for Minnesota et al. by Hubert H. Humphrey III, Attorney General of Minnesota, and Jocelyn F. Olson, Assistant Attorney General, joined by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows: Robert A. Butterworth of Florida, Robert A. Marks of Hawaii, and Ernest D. Preate, Jr., of Pennsylvania; for the Pacific Legal Foundation by Ronald A. Zumbrun, Anthony T. Caso, and Deborah J. La Fetra; and for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. by Daniel J. Popeo and David A. Price.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Bar Association by George E. Bushnell, Jr., Paul M. Smith, and Marc Goldman; for Catholic Charities U. S. A. et al. by Daniel Marcus; for Law Professors by Jonathan D. Varat; for the National Welfare Rights and Reform Union by Timothy J. Casey and Christopher D. Lamb; and for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund et al. by Martha F. Davis and Deborah A. Ellis.
William Perry Pendley filed a brief for the Mountain States Legal Foundation et al. as amici curiae.
