Hampton v. Mow Sun Wong 426 U.S. 88 (1976)
HAMPTON v. MOW SUN WONG 426 U.S. 88 (1976)
In this case the Supreme Court declined to extend to federal government action the constitutional limits it had imposed on the states' discrimination against aliens. The Court recognized that "overriding national interests" might justify a limitation of employment in the federal civil service to citizens—as required by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) here—despite the invalidity of a parallel state law. (See sugarman v. dougall.) But the interests identified by CSC were insufficient: some of them could be asserted only by the President or Congress; others, within CSC's purview, were after-the-fact rationalizations that had not been considered before the regulation was adopted. The regulation thus violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process of law; that amendment's equal protection component need not be reached. The vote was 5–4.
Shortly after the Court's decision in Hampton, President gerald r. ford issued an order embracing the policy of the invalidated CSC rule.
Kenneth L. Karst
(1986)