PRACTICE EXAM QUESTION - CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - PROFESSOR HARPAZ

(Suggested time: 30 minutes)
                    
On March 31, 2011, the State of Stone enacted the Welfare Reform Law of 2011. The law became effective on February 1, 2012, ten months after its passage. The Welfare Reform Law was designed to curb welfare dependency and to bring down the escalating costs of welfare in light of the state's fiscal crisis. Among the welfare programs affected by the law is the Aid to Dependent Women and Children (ADWC). The ADWC program provides welfare benefits to single indigent women who have one or more dependent children. Under the original terms of the program a woman received money for her own support as well as $250 per month for each dependent child whether born to her before or after her enrollment in the program.

As part of the inquiry conducted by Stone prior to the enactment of the Welfare Reform Law, the state studied the behavior of women receiving ADWC benefits. Studies conducted by the state demonstrated that the birth rate among single women receiving benefits under the ADWC program is greater than the birth rate among single women in the nonwelfare population. One of the purposes of the new law was to discourage such a high birth rate among single mothers enrolled in the ADWC program. Under the Welfare Reform Law, if a woman gives birth to a child while receiving ADWC benefits, she receives no increase in her welfare payments. Shortly after the enactment of the Welfare Reform Law on March 31, 2011, the State of Stone sent notices to all recipients of ADWC benefits about the change in the law which would take effect on February 1, 2012. The recipients were informed that no additional benefits would be granted to a current ADWC beneficiary for any child born after February 1, 2012.

Janice Flint is a single mother receiving ADWC benefits from the State of Stone. At the time she began to receive welfare benefits she had one child. On March 15, 2012 (more than 11 months after she was notified of the change in the law) she gave birth to a second child. The State has refused to raise her ADWC benefits based on the Welfare Reform Act of 2011.

Ms. Flint has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the provision of the Welfare Reform Act that deprives her of additional ADWC benefits to support her second child. Her suit claims that the law violates her rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

You are one of the law clerks to the judge assigned to the case. The judge asks you to write an analysis describing all of the due process arguments that can be made by the State of Stone in defense of the law. Your analysis should deal only with the due process arguments that can be made by the State of Stone. Another law clerk has been assigned the task of writing an analysis of the due process arguments that can be made by Janice Flint in challenging the law.