This Land Is Their Land

THE END of welfare as we know it may seem remote, but the federal judiciary is helping to bring it closer. Court decisions have made it difficult for states to deny government services, including welfare, to illegal aliens. If this continues unabated, Justice Blackmun and his ilk may succeed in bankrupting public welfare before President Clinton has a chance to reform it.

In 1982, the Supreme Court invalidated a Texas statute denying educational benefits to the alien children of illegal immigrants. Justice Brennan held for a narrow majority that illegal aliens were covered by the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that there is “no national policy that might justify the state in denying the children an elementary education.” It’s been downhill ever since.

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Tom Bethell

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THE END of welfare as we know it may seem remote, but the federal judiciary is helping to bring it closer. Court decisions have made it difficult for states to deny government services, including welfare, to illegal aliens. If this continues unabated, Justice Blackmun and his ilk may succeed in bankrupting public welfare before President Clinton has a chance to reform it.

In 1982, the Supreme Court invalidated a Texas statute denying educational benefits to the alien children of illegal immigrants. Justice Brennan held for a narrow majority that illegal aliens were covered by the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that there is “no national policy that might justify the state in denying the children an elementary education.” It’s been downhill ever since.