Sugarman v. Dougall

A New York statute barred aliens from holding competitive-class civil service jobs, a prohibition that swept broadly across many kinds of positions while exempting elected offices and higher state agency roles. Several resident aliens (plaintiffs) discharged from civil-service jobs due to their alienage sued the administrator of the New York City Human Resources Administration (defendant), and a three-judge district court panel found the statute unconstitutional; the U.S. Supreme Court took the case to review that ruling.