Re: A question to all Americans
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:34 pm
And here is a case holding by the Supreme Court which is directly on point with the school issue.
So basically Texas had a law saying illegal immigrants can't go to Texas public schools. But the Supreme Court said that the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution trumps the inconsistent state law, and that the law must apply equally to all persons in the state, regardless of citizenship. Obviously because legal Texas citizens could go to the Texas schools while illegal persons in Texas could not, this violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.In Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law prohibiting enrollment of illegal aliens in public school. In its decision, the Court held, "The illegal aliens who are plaintiffs in these cases challenging the statute may claim the benefit of the Equal Protection Clause, which provides that no State shall 'deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' Whatever his status under the immigration laws, an alien is a 'person' in any ordinary sense of that term… The undocumented status of these children vel non does not establish a sufficient rational basis for denying them benefits that the State affords other residents."