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In a 2 to 1 decision, Chief Judge Cardamone of the U.S Court
of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ruled that a juvenile curfew
violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause. The
curfew prohibited youth under the age of 18 from being out between
11 p.m. (12 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays) and 5 a.m., with certain
exceptions. The Court looked at the history leading to the development
of the curfew and concluded that "no effort seems to have
been made by the town to ensure that the population targeted by
the ordinance represented that part of the population causing
trouble or that was being victimized (or that was even in particular
danger of being victimized)." The court applied an intermediate
level of scrutiny and found that there was a "conspicuous
lack of relationship between the contours of the problem identified
by the Vernon Town Council and the curfew ordinance…"
The curfew was enacted in 1994, in the heyday of draconian legal
reaction to youth. The legal challenge was brought by the ACLU
of Connecticut.
The 2nd circuit's review of the curfew and what led to its enactment
is unusual for the court's refusal to accept as axiomatic that
youth are troublemakers and that legislation aimed at their behavior
is necessary. Rather, the Court notes: "…generalizations
about youth do not uniformly suggest lowering the level of scrutiny.
For instance, some might consider minors, as a group, to be immature
and dependent and use these considerations to justify a juvenile
curfew ordinance. However these very same considerations - immaturity
and dependency - also impede minors' relative ability, as a class,
to articulate or mount an effective defense against such a restriction.
Juveniles also lack the right to vote. Without an independent
voice in legislative decision making, minors must rely on others
to ensure adequate protection of their rights."
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