Case: 22-40225 Document: 00516815506 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/10/2023 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit ____________ FILED July 10, 2023 No. 22-40225 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk Young Conservatives of Texas Foundation, Plaintiff—Appellee, versus Neal Smatresk, President of the University of North Texas; Shannon Goodman, Vice President for Enrollment of the University of North Texas, Defendants—Appellants. ______________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas USDC No. 4:20-CV-973 ______________________________ Before Smith, Clement, and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Edith Brown Clement, Circuit Judge: States often charge their residents one price for public college and charge those who live elsewhere much more. Texas allows illegal aliens who satisfy residency requirements to pay that in-state, lower tuition. A Texas university student group of out-of-state students sued officials at the University of North Texas, arguing that Texas’ tuition scheme violated federal law. The district court agreed and barred the university from charging out-of-state tuition. We now REVERSE the judgment and VACATE the injunction. Case: 22-40225 Document: 00516815506 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/10/2023 No. 22-40225 I The facts here are undisputed. In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. See Pub. L. No. 104- 208, Div. C, 110 Stat. 3009-546 (1996). That act, among other things, restricts states’ authority to grant certain postsecondary education benefits to illegal aliens unless other conditions are met. It directs that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State . . . for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit . . . without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.” 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a). Meanwhile, Texas charges students who satisfy certain residency requirements lower tuition than it charges to nonresident students. See Tex. Educ. Code §§ 54.051(c)–(d), 54.052. So long as they satisfy the statute’s residency requirements, illegal aliens are eligible for Texas resident tuition. Out-of-state, nonresident American citizens are not. Currently, Texas resident tuition is pegged at $50 per semester credit hour. See Tex. Educ. Code § 54.051(c). Nonresident tuition instead totals $458 per semester credit hour. Enter this lawsuit. The Young Conservatives of Texas Foundation (YCT) is a student group at the University of North Texas (UNT) comprising many nonresident members. YCT’s “core organizational purpose is to advance conservative values” through a variety of actions. It has also “repeatedly opposed the disparate treatment of aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States and United States citizens from other states with regard to tuition.” That latter goal collided with UNT’s tuition scheme. UNT, through its President, Neal Smatresk, and its Vice President for Enrollment, Shannon 2 Case: 22-40225 Document: 00516815506 Page: 3 Date Filed: 07/10/2023 No. 22-40225 Goodman, (the appellants here), charge illegal aliens who satisfied Texas’ residency requirements resident tuition, and charge U.S. citizens who failed …
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals