JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana held unconstitutional a section of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 1305, as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 231 et seq., and the United States Railroad Retirement Board has appealed to this Court pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1252. We noted probable jurisdiction. 444 U.S. 1069 (1980).
The 1974 Act fundamentally restructured the railroad retirement system. The Act's predecessor statute, adopted in 1937, provided a system of retirement and disability benefits for persons who pursued careers in the railroad industry. Under that statute, a person who worked for both railroad and nonrailroad employers and who qualified for railroad retirement benefits and social security benefits, 42 U. S. C. § 401 et seq., received retirement benefits under both systems and an accompanying "windfall" benefit.
Thus, an individual who, as of the changeover date, was unretired and had 10 years of railroad employment and sufficient nonrailroad employment to qualify for social security benefits is eligible for the full windfall amount if he worked for the railroad in 1974 or had a current connection with the railroad as of December 31, 1974, or his later retirement date. But an unretired individual with 24 years of railroad service and sufficient nonrailroad service to qualify for social security benefits is not eligible for a full windfall amount unless he worked for the railroad in 1974, or had a current connection with the railroad as of December 31, 1974, or his later retirement date. And an employee with 10 years of railroad employment who qualified for social security benefits only after
Appellee and others filed this class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, seeking a declaratory judgment that 45 U. S. C. § 231b (h) is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because it irrationally distinguishes between classes of annuitants.
The District Court agreed with appellee that a differentiation based solely on whether an employee was "active" in the railroad business as of 1974 was not "rationally related" to the congressional purposes of insuring the solvency of the railroad retirement system and protecting vested benefits. We disagree and reverse.
The initial issue presented by this case is the appropriate standard of judicial review to be applied when social and economic legislation enacted by Congress is challenged as being violative of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. There is no claim here that Congress has taken property in violation of the Fifth Amendment, since railroad benefits, like social security benefits, are not contractual and may be altered or even eliminated at any time. Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo, 439 U.S. 572, 575 (1979); Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 608-611 (1960). And because the distinctions drawn in § 231b (h) do not burden fundamental constitutional rights or create "suspect" classifications, such as race or national origin, we may put cases involving judicial review of such claims to one side. San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973); Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93 (1979).
Despite the narrowness of the issue, this court in earlier cases has not been altogether consistent in its pronouncements in this area. In Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78-79 (1911), the Court said that "[w]hen the classification in such a law is called in question, if any state of facts reasonably can be conceived that would sustain it, the existence of that state of facts at the time that the law was enacted must be assumed." On the other hand, only nine years later in F. S. Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 415 (1920), the Court said that for a classification to be valid under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
In more recent years, however, the Court in cases involving social and economic benefits has consistently refused to invalidate on equal protection grounds legislation which it simply deemed unwise or unartfully drawn.
Thus in Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471 (1970), the Court rejected a claim that Maryland welfare legislation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It said:
Of like tenor are Vance v. Bradley, supra, at 97, and New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 303 (1976). Earlier, in Flemming v. Nestor, supra, at 611, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a social security eligibility provision, saying:
And in a case not dissimilar from the present one, in that the State was forced to make a choice which would undoubtedly seem inequitable to some members of a class, we said:
Applying those principles to this case, the plain language of § 231b (h) marks the beginning and end of our inquiry.
The only remaining question is whether Congress achieved its purpose in a patently arbitrary or irrational way. The classification here is not arbitrary, says appellant, because it is an attempt to protect the relative equities of employees and to provide benefits to career railroad employees. Congress fully protected, for example, the expectations of those employees who had already retired and those unretired employees who lacked had 25 years of railroad employment. Conversely, Congress denied all windfall benefits to those employees who lacked 10 years of railroad employment. Congress additionally provided windfall benefits, in lesser amount, to those employees with 10 years' railroad employment who had qualified for social security benefits at the time they had left railroad employment
Thus, the only eligible former railroad employees denied full windfall benefits are those, like appellee, who had no statutory entitlement to dual benefits at the time they left the railroad industry, but thereafter became eligible for dual benefits when they subsequently qualified for social security benefits. Congress could properly conclude that persons who had actually acquired statutory entitlement to windfall benefits while still employed in the railroad industry had a greater equitable claim to those benefits than the members of appellee's class who were no longer in railroad employment when they became eligible for dual benefits. Furthermore, the "current connection" test is not a patently arbitrary means for determining which employees are "career railroaders," particularly since the test has been used by Congress elsewhere as an eligibility requirement for retirement benefits.
Finally, we disagree with the District Court's conclusion that Congress was unaware of what it accomplished or that it was misled by the groups that appeared before it. If this test were applied literally to every member of any legislature that ever voted on a law, there would be very few laws which would survive it. The language of the statute is clear, and we have historically assumed that Congress intended what it enacted. To be sure, appellee lost a political battle in which he had a strong interest, but this is neither the first nor the last time that such a result will occur in the legislative forum. What we have said is enough to dispose of the claims that Congress not only failed to accept appellee's argument as to restructuring in toto, but that such failure denied him equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
Reversed.
JUSTICE STEVENS, concurring in the judgment.
In my opinion JUSTICE BRENNAN'S criticism of the Court's approach to this case merits a more thoughtful response than that contained in footnote 10, ante, at 176-177. JUSTICE BRENNAN correctly points out that if the analysis of legislative purpose requires only a reading of the statutory language in a disputed provision, and if any "conceivable basis" for a discriminatory classification will repel a constitutional attack on the statute, judicial review will constitute a mere tautological recognition of the fact that Congress did what it intended to do. JUSTICE BRENNAN is also correct in reminding us that even though the statute is an example of "social and economic legislation," the challenge here is mounted by individuals whose legitimate expectations of receiving a fixed retirement income are being frustrated by, in effect, a breach of a solemn commitment by their Government. When Congress deprives a small class of persons of vested rights that are protected—and, indeed, even enhanced
I do not, however, share JUSTICE BRENNAN's conclusion that every statutory classification must further an objective that can be confidently identified as the "actual purpose" of the legislature. Actual purpose is sometimes unknown. Moreover, undue emphasis on actual motivation may result in identically worded statutes being held valid in one State and invalid in a neighboring State.
In this case we need not look beyond the actual purpose of the legislature. As is often true, this legislation is the product of multiple and somewhat inconsistent purposes that led to certain compromises. One purpose was to eliminate in the future the benefit that is described by the Court as a "windfall benefit" and by JUSTICE BRENNAN as an "earned dual benefit." That aim was incident to the broader objective of protecting the solvency of the entire railroad retirement program. Two purposes that conflicted somewhat with this broad objective were the purposes of preserving those benefits that had already vested and of increasing the level of payments to beneficiaries whose rights were not otherwise to be changed. As JUSTICE BRENNAN emphasizes, Congress originally intended to protect all vested benefits, but it ultimately sacrificed some benefits in the interest of achieving other objectives.
Given these conflicting purposes, I believe the decisive questions are (1) whether Congress can rationally reduce the vested benefits of some employees to improve the solvency of the entire program while simultaneously increasing the benefits of others; and (2) whether, in deciding which vested benefits to reduce, Congress may favor annuitants whose railroad service was more recent than that of disfavored annuitants who had an equal or greater quantum of employment.
Accordingly, I concur in the judgment.
JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom JUSTICE MARSHALL joins, dissenting.
Appellee Gerhard Fritz represents a class of retired former railroad employees who were statutorily entitled to Railroad Retirement and Social Security benefits, including an overlap herein called the "earned dual benefit," until enactment of
The only question in this case is whether the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment
I
A legislative classification may be upheld only if it bears a rational relationship to a legitimate state purpose. Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93, 97 (1979); Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 312 (1976) (per curiam); New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 303 (1976) (per curiam). Perhaps the clearest statement of this Court's present approach to "rational basis" scrutiny may be found in Johnson v. Robison, 415 U.S. 361 (1974). In considering the constitutionality of limitations on the availability of educational
The enactments of Congress are entitled to a presumption of constitutionality, and the burden rests on those challenging a legislative classification to demonstrate that it does not bear the "fair and substantial relation to the object of the legislation," ibid., required under the Constitution. Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 510 (1976).
Nonetheless, the rational-basis standard "is not a toothless one," ibid., and will not be satisfied by flimsy or implausible justifications for the legislative classification, proffered after the fact by Government attorneys. See, e. g., Jimenez v. Weinberger, 417 U.S. 628 (1974); U. S. Dept. of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528 (1973); U. S. Dept. of Agriculture v. Murry, 413 U.S. 508 (1973); James v. Strange, 407 U.S. 128 (1972). When faced with a challenge to a legislative classification under the rational-basis test, the court should ask, first, what the purposes of the statute are, and, second, whether the classification is rationally related to achievement of those purposes.
II
The purposes of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 are clear, because Congress has commendably stated them in the House and Senate Reports accompanying the Act. A section of the Reports is entitled "Principal Purpose of the Bill." It notes generally that "[t]he bill provides for a complete restructuring of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937, and will place it on a sound financial basis,"
Moreover, Congress explained that this purpose was based on considerations of fairness and the legitimate expectations of the retirees:
Thus, a "principal purpose" of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, as explicitly stated by Congress, was to preserve the vested earned benefits of retirees who had already qualified for them. The classification at issue here, which deprives some retirees of vested dual benefits that they had earned prior to 1974, directly conflicts with Congress' stated purpose. As such, the classification is not only rationally unrelated to the congressional purpose; it is inimical to it.
III
The Court today avoids the conclusion that § 231b (h) must be invalidated by deviating in three ways from traditional rational-basis analysis. First, the Court adopts a tautological approach to statutory purpose, thereby avoiding the necessity for evaluating the relationship between the challenged classification and the legislative purpose. Second, it disregards the actual stated purpose of Congress in favor of a justification which was never suggested by any Representative or Senator, and which in fact conflicts with the stated congressional purpose. Third, it upholds the classification without any analysis of its rational relationship to the identified purpose.
A
The Court states that "the plain language of [45 U. S. C.] § 231b (h) marks the beginning and end of our inquiry." Ante, at 176. This statement is strange indeed, for the "plain language" of the statute can tell us only what the classification is; it can tell us nothing about the purpose of the classification, let alone the relationship between the classification
B
The Court analyzes the rationality of § 231b (h) in terms of a justification suggested by Government attorneys, but never adopted by Congress. The Court states that it is "`constitutionally irrelevant whether this reasoning in fact underlay the legislative decision.'" Ante, at 179 (quoting Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 612 (1960)). In fact, however, equal protection analysis has evolved substantially on this question since Flemming was decided. Over the past 10 years, this Court has frequently recognized that the actual purposes of Congress, rather than the post hoc justifications offered by Government attorneys, must be the primary basis for analysis under the rational-basis test. In Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636, 648, n. 16 (1975), we said:
From these cases and others it is clear that this Court will no longer sustain a challenged classification under the rational-basis test merely because Government attorneys can suggest a "conceivable basis" upon which it might be thought rational. The standard we have applied is properly deferential to the Legislative Branch: where Congress has articulated a legitimate governmental objective, and the challenged classification rationally furthers that objective, we must sustain the provision. In other cases, however, the courts must probe more deeply. Where Congress has expressly stated the purpose of a piece of legislation, but where the challenged classification is either irrelevant to or counter to that purpose, we must view any post hoc justifications proffered by Government attorneys with skepticism. A challenged classification may be sustained only if it is rationally related to achievement of an actual legitimate governmental purpose.
The Court argues that Congress chose to discriminate against appellee for reasons of equity, stating that "Congress could properly conclude that persons who had actually acquired statutory entitlement to windfall benefits while still employed in the railroad industry had a greater equitable
The factual findings of the District Court concerning the development of § 231b (h), amply supported by the legislative history, are revealing on this point.
After receiving the Commission report, Congress asked railroad management and labor representatives to negotiate and submit a bill to restructure the Railroad Retirement system, which should "take into account the specific recommendations of the Commission on Railroad Retirement." Pub. L. 93-69, § 107, 87 Stat. 165. The members of this Joint Labor-Management Negotiating Committee were not appointed by public officials, nor did they represent the interests of the appellee class, who were no longer active railroaders or union members.
Congress conducted hearings to consider the Joint Committee's recommendations, but never directed its attention to their effect on persons in appellee class' situation. In fact, the Joint Committee negotiators and Railroad Retirement Board members who testified at congressional hearings perpetuated the inaccurate impression that all retirees with earned vested dual benefits under prior law would retain their benefits unchanged. For example, Mr. William H. Dempsey, chairman of the management negotiators on the Joint
Accord, id., at 190 (statement of Mr. Dempsey); id., at 194 (statement of Mr. Dempsey); id., at 204 (statement of Rep. Dingell); id., at 213-214 (statement of Mr. Dempsey); id., at 242 (statement of Mr. Dempsey); id., at 248 (statement of Mr. James L. Cowen, Chairman of the Railroad Retirement Board); id., at 249 (statement of Mr. Cowen); id., at 335 (statements of Messrs. Neil P. Speirs and Wythe D. Quarles, Jr., members of the Railroad Retirement Board); id., at 351 (statement of Mr. Speirs).
Most striking is the following colloquy between Representative Dingell and Mr. Dempsey:
The Act was passed in the form drafted by the Joint Committee without any amendment relevant to this case.
Of course, a misstatement or several misstatements by witnesses before Congress would not ordinarily lead us to conclude that Congress misapprehended what it was doing. In this instance, however, where complex legislation was drafted by outside parties and Congress relied on them to explain it, where the misstatements are frequent and unrebutted, and where no Member of Congress can be found to have stated the effect of the classification correctly, we are entitled to suspect that Congress may have been misled. As the District Court found: "At no time during the hearings did Congress even give a hint that it understood that the bill by its language eliminated an earned benefit of plaintiff's class." Finding of Fact No. 63, reprinted at App. to Juris. Statement 22a.
Therefore, I do not think that this classification was rationally related to an actual governmental purpose.
C
The third way in which the Court has deviated from the principles of rational-basis scrutiny is its failure to analyze
An unadorned claim of "equitable" considerations is, of course, difficult to assess. It seems to me that before a court may accept a litigant's assertion of "equity," it must inquire what principles of equity or fairness might genuinely support such a judgment. But apparently the Court does not demand such inquiry, for it has failed to address any equitable considerations that might be relevant to the challenged classification.
In my view, the following considerations are of greatest relevance to the equities of this case: (1) contribution to the system; (2) reasonable expectation and reliance; (3) need; and (4) character of service to the railroad industry. With respect to each of these considerations, I would conclude that the members of appellee class have as great an equitable claim to their earned dual benefits as do their more favored co-workers, who remain entitled to their earned dual benefits under § 231b (h).
Contribution to the system. The members of the appellee class worked in the railroad industry for more than 10 but fewer than 25 years, and also worked in nonrailroad jobs for the required number of years for vesting under Social Security —usually 40 quarters. During that time, they contributed to both the Railroad Retirement and Social Security systems, and met all requirements of the law for the vesting of benefits under those systems. In this respect, they are identical to their more favored co-workers, who contributed no more of their earnings to the systems than did appellee
Reasonable expectation and reliance. Throughout their working lives, the members of appellee class were assured that they would receive retirement benefits in accordance with the terms of the law as it then stood. See Finding of Fact No. 70, reprinted at App. to Juris. Statement 25a. No less than their more favored co-workers, they chose career paths and made calculations for their retirement based on these assurances. For Congress to change its rules and strip them of these benefits at the time of their retirement seems decidedly inequitable. As the District Court found:
In fact, this reliance was one of the principal reasons Congress resolved not to disturb the vested earned dual benefits of retirees.
Character of service to the railroad industry. Members of the appellee class worked at least 10 years for the railroad industry by 1974, and many of them worked as long as 24 years. Their duration of railroad employment—surely the best measure of their service to the industry—was equal to that of their co-workers. In fact, some members of the class worked over twice as long in the railroad industry as did some of those who retained their rights to a dual benefit. Finding of Fact No. 60, reprinted id., at 21a-22a. Admittedly, the members of the appellee class retired from railroad work prior to 1974, but the record shows that many left railroad work involuntarily, not because of a lack of commitment to the industry. Finding of Fact No. 72, reprinted id., at 26a. Moreover, since one purpose of the Railroad Retirement system was to encourage railroad workers to retire early, so as to create positions for younger workers, Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo, 439 U.S. 572, 573-574 (1979), it is hardly fair to fault the appellee class now for having done so.
Even if I were able to accept the notion that Congress considered it equitable to deprive a class of railroad retirees of a portion of their vested earned benefits because they no longer worked for the railroad, I would still consider the means adopted in § 231b (h) irrational.
I therefore conclude that the Government's proffered justification of "equitable considerations," accepted without question by the Court, cannot be defended. Rather, as the legislative history repeatedly states, equity and fairness demand that the members of appellee class like their co-workers, retain the vested dual benefits they earned prior to 1974. A conscientious application of rational-basis scrutiny demands, therefore, that § 231b (h) be invalidated.
IV
Equal protection rationality analysis does not empower the courts to second-guess the wisdom of legislative classifications. On this we are agreed, and have been for over 40 years. On the other hand, we are not powerless to probe beneath claims by Government attorneys concerning the means and ends of
I respectfully dissent.
FootNotes
The Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 had its origins in 1970 when Congress created the Commission on Railroad Retirement to study the actuarial soundness of the railroad retirement system. The Commission submitted its report in 1972 and identified "dual benefits and their attendant windfalls" as a principal cause of the system's financial difficulties. It also found that windfall benefits were inequitable, favoring those employees who split their employment over those employees who spent their entire career in the railroad industry. Report of the Commission on Railroad Retirement, The Railroad Retirement System: Its Coming Crisis, H. R. Doc. No. 92-350 (1972). It therefore recommended that future accruals of windfall benefits be eliminated by the establishment of a two-tier system, somewhat similar to the type of system eventually adopted by Congress. It also recommended that "legally vested rights of railroad workers" be preserved. An employee who was fully insured under both the railroad and social security systems as of the changeover date (i. e., by having at least 10 years of railroad employment and the requisite length of social security employment) was deemed to have "legally vested rights."
Following receipt of the Commission's report, Congress requested members of management, labor, and retirees to form a Joint Labor Management Railroad Retirement Negotiating Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Joint Committee) and submit a report, "tak[ing] into account" the recommendations of the Commission. The Joint Committee outlined its proposals in the form of a letter to Congress, dated April 10, 1974. 120 Cong. Rec. 18391-18392 (1974). Although it agreed with the Commission that future accruals of windfall benefits be eliminated, it differed as to the protection to be afforded those already statutorily entitled to benefits and recommended the transitional provisions that were eventually adopted by Congress. A bill embodying those principles was drafted and submitted to Congress, where the relevant committees held lengthy hearings and submitted detailed Reports. See S. Rep. No. 93-1163, supra; H. R. Rep. No. 93-1345, supra.
"(1) The amount of the annuity . . . of an individual who (A) will have (i) rendered service as an employee to an employer, or as an employee representative, during the calendar year 1974, or (ii) had a current connection with the railroad industry on December 31, 1974, or at the time his annuity under section 2 (a) (1) of this Act began to accrue, or (iii) completed twenty-five years of service prior to January 1, 1975, and (B) will have (i) completed ten years of service prior to January 1, 1975, and (ii) been permanently insured under the Society Security Act on December 31, 1974, shall be increased by an amount equal to [the amount of windfall dual benefit he would have received prior to January 1, 1975] . . . .
"(2) The amount of the annuity . . . to an individual who (A) will not have met the conditions set forth in subclause (i), (ii), or (iii) of clause (A) of subdivision (1) of this subsection, but (B) will have (i) completed ten years of service prior to January 1, 1975, and (ii) been permanently insured under the Social Security Act as of December 31 of the calendar year prior to 1975 in which he last rendered service as an employee to an employer, or as an employee representative, shall be increased by an amount equal to the amount . . . [of windfall benefit calculated at time he left the railroad service] . . . ."
The relevant Committee Reports stated that the most "difficult problem" was the "manner in which dual benefits should be phased out on an equitable basis." S. Rep. No. 93-1163, supra, at 11; H. R. Rep. No. 93-1345, supra, at 11.
Appellee contends that the "current connection" test is impermissible because it draws a distinction not on the duration of employment but rather on the time of employment. But this Court has clearly held that Congress may condition eligibility for benefits such as these on the character as well as the duration of an employee's ties to an industry. Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 83 (1976).
"It must be recognized that the bill actually takes benefits away from certain railroad employees—those who have not already qualified for Social Security benefits." H. R. Rep. No. 93-1345, at 6; S. Rep. No. 93-1163, at 7.
Only in technical discussions and in the section-by-section analyses do the Reports reflect the actual consequences of the Act on the appellee class. See H. R. Rep. No. 93-1345, at 12, 39-40; S. Rep. No. 93-1163, at 12, 38-39.
The administration also understood the Act to preserve rights to vested earned dual benefits. See H. R. Rep. No. 93-1345, at 81-82 (supplemental report from the Office of Management and Budget).
"The historical record shows that past policy formulation has not always abided by the key criteria of equity and sound financing. Generally the major provisions of the system have been the product of negotiations between railway labor and the carriers in a bargaining process often reflecting conflicts or the exercise of power in an industry which directly affects the public welfare. The results of this bargaining process have, at times, been less than fully screened by the Federal Government before they were ratified by Congressional action and given Presidential approval." H. R. Doc. No. 92-350, supra, at 147.
Comment
User Comments