Toll v. Moreno, 441 U.S. 458 (1979)

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

Respondents, representing a class of nonimmigrant alien residents of Maryland who either held or were financially dependent upon a person who held a "G-4 visa" (a nonimmigrant visa granted to officers or employees of international organizations and members of their immediate families), instituted an action in Federal District Court, challenging the validity of the policy of the University of Maryland whereby "in-state" status for tuition purposes was denied to such aliens because they were conclusively presumed by the University to be nondomiciliaries of the State. The District Court held for respondents, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. This Court then certified to the Maryland Court of Appeals the question whether G-4 aliens residing in Maryland are incapable as a matter of state law of becoming domiciliaries of Maryland. Elkins v. Moreno, 435 U.S. 647. Before the Maryland Court of Appeals answered the certified question in the negative, the University’s Board of Regents adopted a resolution reaffirming its policy of denying in-state status to nonimmigrant aliens regardless of whether its policy conformed to the otherwise applicable definition of domicile under Maryland law.

Held: The case will not be restored to this Court’s active docket for further briefing and argument, since this Court’s decision in Elkins, supra, rested on the premise that the University apparently has no interest in continuing to deny in-state status to G-4 aliens as a class if they can become Maryland domiciliaries, but this premise no longer appears to be true in view of the resolution subsequently adopted by the Board of Regents. The resolution thus raises new issues of constitutional law which should be addressed in the first instance by the District Court, to which the case is remanded for further consideration.

556 F.2d 573, vacated and remanded.