June 15, 1982
In Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a Texas statute denying funding for education to unauthorized immigrant children and simultaneously struck down a municipal school district’s (Tyler) attempt to charge unauthorized immigrants an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each undocumented immigrant student to compensate for the lost state funding. The Court found that where states limit the rights afforded to people (specifically children) based on their status as immigrants, this limitation must be examined under an intermediate scrutiny standard to determine whether it furthers a “substantial” state interest.
