REGENTS OF UNIV. OF CALIF. v. Superior Court

By law, California’s public colleges and universities charge lower tuition for California residents than for nonresidents. (See Ed. Code, §§ 68050-68051.) At one time, students who were not United States citizens were classified by statute as nonresidents unless they were “lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence in accordance with all applicable laws of the United States.” (Former Ed. Code, §§ 68076-68077, repealed 1983.)

In 1982, however, in a suit by alien University of Maryland students whose parents were admitted to this country as employees of official international organizations, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that when federal immigration law authorizes a particular classification of non-immigrant aliens to establish domicile in the United States, a state university is precluded, under the supremacy clause, from refusing to regard them as residents. (Toll v. Moreno (1982) 458 U.S. 1 [ 73 L.Ed.2d 563 , 102 S.Ct. 2977 ].)

Accordingly, in 1983 our Legislature amended the Education Code to eliminate the requirement that alien students seeking the benefits of resident tuition must show they were lawfully admitted for permanent…