Lorenz v. Logue

481 F. Supp. 173, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11392
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJune 27, 1979
DocketCiv. No. N-79-122
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 481 F. Supp. 173 (Lorenz v. Logue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lorenz v. Logue, 481 F. Supp. 173, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11392 (D. Conn. 1979).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

ELLEN BREE BURNS, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, all members of the Department of Police Services of the City of New Haven and all residing outside the limits of said city, have brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and seek declaratory and injunctive relief, claiming deprivation of their rights secured by Article I, Section 10, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States by the application to them of an ordinance of the city of New Haven requiring them to establish residence in that city. The plaintiffs have moved for a preliminary injunction, enjoining the defendants from taking any adverse action against them, on which motion an evidentiary hearing was held. Defendants have moved for dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and for failure to demonstrate the jurisdiction of the court over the subject matter.

[175]*175The ordinance, which became effective on January 1, 1978, requires all city employees hired after that date to reside within the city as a condition of employment and allows any such person who is a nonresident at the time of hiring to continue in employment if he or she moves his or her residence into the city within six months after becoming a permanent employee. The ordinance also provides that those persons hired prior to January 1, 1978, must reside in the Greater New Haven Area (defined as New Haven and the cities and towns contiguous thereto) except that any such employee in a bargaining unit position who is appointed, transferred or promoted outside of his bargaining unit and any such employee not in a bargaining unit position who is appointed, transferred or promoted to any high pay position, as defined in the ordinance, shall be thereafter required to maintain his residence in the city.1 The ordinance also establishes a Residency Review Board which is authorized to “grant waivers in cases of Extreme Hardship . . . which may exempt or abate, permanently or temporarily, the operation of this ordinance with respect to municipal employees. Extreme Hardship shall be any extraordinary burden imposed on a municipal employee by this ordinance, either financial or otherwise, which causes serious harm to him or her immediate family.” [sic]

The plaintiffs, all of whom were members of The New Haven Housing Authority police department on October 30, 1978, on which date the housing authority police service was abolished, were offered the opportunity to, and did, become regular members of the city police department thereafter. They have all been notified that they must remove their residences to New Haven not later than fixed dates or be terminated.

The plaintiffs contend the ordinance imposes an unconstitutional burden on and impairment of their right to travel freely, both interstate and intrastate, and on their right to live and work where they choose and that it discriminates between them and a few other city employees on the one hand and the “vast majority” of city employees on the other, depriving them of the equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; that the requirement that employees seeking waiver show “extreme hardship” is unconstitutionally vague on its face and as applied to the plaintiffs in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; that the ordinance deprives plaintiffs of their right to continue to reside in their homes without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and that it imposes an obligation on the plaintiffs which fundamentally alters the terms of their employment with the city and impairs the obligations of the city’s contracts with the plaintiffs in violation of Article I, Section 10, of the United States Constitution. With respect to this last claim, plaintiffs alleged no facts and offered no evidence in support thereof nor did they brief any argument thereon. Accordingly, the court will treat that claim as abandoned.

The court, in considering the equal protection claims of plaintiffs, is required first to determine the applicable standard to be applied to the requirement imposed by the ordinance, a determination made by looking to the nature of the classification and the individual interest affected. Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250, 253, 94 S.Ct. 1076, 39 L.Ed.2d 306 (1973). Equal protection analysis of such legislation requires strict scrutiny where a classification therein impermissibly interferes with the exercise of a fundamental [176]*176right or operates to the peculiar disadvantage of a suspect class. Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 312, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1975); San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 16, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973).

Plaintiffs here claim first that the residency requirement imposes an unconstitutional burden on their fundamental right to travel freely, both interstate and intrastate. The Supreme Court, in considering durational residency requirements imposed. by statute in varying contexts, has made clear that such requirements do unconstitutionally infringe on a fundamental right of interstate travel. Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, supra (eligibility for nonemergency hospital or medical care at county expense); Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274 (1971) (prerequisite for registration to vote); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969) (eligibility for welfare assistance). The Second Circuit has extended this concept to the. right to intrastate travel as well. King v. New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority, 442 F.2d 646 (1971), cert. den. 404 U.S. 863, 92 S.Ct. 113, 30 L.Ed.2d 107 (requirement for admission to. public housing). Where such fundamental rights are involved, such a requirement can be upheld only if it furthers a compelling state interest. However, the Supreme Court has also made it clear that a durational residency requirement and not a continuing residency requirement was at issue in Shapiro and Dunn and that this was a distinction with a significant difference. Memorial Hospital, supra, 415 U.S. at 255, 94 S.Ct. 1076. The same kind of durational residency requirement was at issue in King. Each of the cited cases involved differing treatment of residents with respect to the benefit sought — the rights of nonresidents were not involved — and the durational requirement in effect penalized new residents for their recent exercise of their right to travel. The court’s interest was in “insuring new residents the same right to vital government benefits and privileges in the States to which they migrate as are enjoyed by other residents.” Memorial Hospital, supra, at 261, 94 S.Ct. at 1084 (Emphasis supplied).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
481 F. Supp. 173, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lorenz-v-logue-ctd-1979.