[EL] Residency Requirements & Legal Aliens

[Steven John Mulroy (smulroy)]

Suppose a  local government charter requires that a candidate for city council must have been a resident, taxpayer, AND VOTER for X years.  This would block a legal immigrant who had resided and paid taxes for X years, but who was not able to vote until he became eligible to be a citizen.  Such a state/local classification burdening legal aliens might normally trigger strict scrutiny. If I recall, such a blanket ban on legal aliens receiving government benefits would be unconstitutional.


But is it subject to the "political function" exception, such that it would be valid? I know states and localities can require people to be CURRENT citizens in order to vote or run for public office.  Can it also require people to have done so for X years?


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20181114/fbcf89de/attachment.html>