It is black letter law, dating back to the Clinton Administration -- states that give in-state tuition to illegal aliens must also give it to all American citizens, regardless of the state in which they reside.

California does the former, but has refused to do the latter.

Hence this suit.

Students from 19 states yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from California officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges.

The 42 plaintiffs say California state lawmakers and the University of California board of regents knowingly violated a federal law enacted in 1996 that says any state that offers discounted in-state tuition to its illegal aliens must provide the same lower rates to all U.S. citizens.

California has a "unique" statute barring discrimination on the basis of geographic origin, said lead attorney Michael J. Brady.

Some students in the University of California system could be eligible for as much as $300,000 in total damages, he said.

Damages of $300K? I'm intrigued. What is the difference in tuition?

Mr. Brady said out-of-state students are paying $20,000 more than illegal aliens per year to attend schools in the University of California system. In the California state university system, the difference is $11,000 per year.

"And in the community college system in California, which has a total of 1.5 million students, the tuition differential is $6,000 a year," he said.

I don't see how we get to that figure for damages, unless the statute allows for punitive damages significanty beyond actual damages. But the really interesting issue is that the state of California really has no defense to offer due to the history of the statute in question.

Mr. Brady said California officials knew their tuition law that took effect in 2002 was unfair and illegal.

"Former Governor Gray Davis initially vetoed it, saying it violated federal law and that it would cost California $65 million [in damages]," Mr. Brady said. "He sent it back to the state Legislature with that warning, but they re-enacted the same law," which Mr. Davis eventually signed.

Mr. Brady said administrators of the University of California system also recognized that the state law was invalid, and they refused to implement it unless they were "given immunity." As a result, he said, California lawmakers enacted an "immunity statute," which says that if the state tuition law is declared illegal or unconstitutional, schools in the University of California system would not be held liable for retroactive tuition differences.

Even after it was vetoed on the grounds it was illegal, the legislature passed the bill again. And after the schools pointed out that the law put them at risk, the legislature attempted to immunize them from liability -- something that I don't see as possible given that state law is trumped by federal law in this instance. Any court would be bound to strike down the immunity statute as well, for the state cannot ban damages from federal lawsuits.

Posted by: Greg at 09:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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