DENVER (AP) August 31, 2007 — A group of
white students paying out-of-state tuition to attend college in Kansas
cannot challenge a state law allowing some Hispanic undocumented
students to pay lower in-state tuition, a federal appeals court ruled.
The ruling, issued Thursday, dealt only
with whether the plaintiffs could challenge the 2004 Kansas law and did
not address the merits of the law.
A trial judge in Kansas had ruled the
white students lacked standing to challenge the law because they did not
face a "concrete and imminent" injury. A three-judge panel of the
Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in its ruling
Thursday.
The white plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens
who did not live in Kansas, argued the state violated their
constitutional rights to equal protection under the law by offering some
Hispanic undocumented students a benefit they couldn't get.
The white students described their
injuries from the law as being the denial of equal treatment and having
to pay higher tuition.
The appeals court said the white
students had not shown that they would have benefited, even if the law
that they alleged was discriminatory was removed.
Under the Kansas law, Hispanic
undocumented students are eligible for in-state tuition if they attended
a Kansas high school for at least three years and graduated, or earned a
general educational development certificate in Kansas. Illegal
immigrants who meet those conditions also must show they are working
toward legal immigration status.
The outcome of the case could affect
similar laws in eight other states: California, Illinois, New Mexico,
New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington.
