Plyler v. Doe
From Conservapedia
In Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) the United States Supreme Court ruled that children of illegal immigrants have a United States Constitutional right to public education, and that this right can not be refused by states.[1]
The case involved a Texas statute which withheld public funded education from children who were not "legally admitted" into the United States. The court ruled that the Texas clause was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment which states that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Justice William Brennan wrote the decision for the 5-4 Court. Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Byron White, William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor all dissented.
The ruling relied on a prior Supreme Court case which ruled that the word "persons" ingrained in the U.S. Constitution related to both legal and illegal citizens.[2]
One of the deleterious effects of Plyler v. Doe has been that the decision gives illegal aliens free services without them, in turn, contributing to States education funds.[3]
As of November 2007, this decision has been questioned by one lower court decision and "distinguished" (not applied) by 41 other decisions.
