(Suggested time: 45 minutes)

On March 31, 2010, the State of Northeast enacted the Welfare Reform Law of 2010. The law became effective on February 1, 2011, 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 Northeast 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, should a woman give birth to a child while receiving ADWC benefits, she would receive no increase in her welfare payments. Shortly after the enactment of the Welfare Reform Law on March 31, 2010, the State of Northeast sent notices to all recipients of ADWC benefits about the change in the law which would take effect on February 1, 2011. The recipients were informed that no additional benefits would be granted to a current ADWC beneficiary for any child born after February 1, 2011.

Janice Flint is a single mother receiving ADWC benefits from the State of Northeast. At the time she first began to receive welfare benefits she had one child. On March 15, 2011 (more than 11 months after she was notified of the change in the law) she gave birth to a second child. The State of Northeast has refused to raise her ADWC benefits citing the Welfare Reform Act of 2010.

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 on a number of grounds including a claim 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 the due process arguments that can be made by Ms. Flint in challenging the law as well as the due process arguments that can be made by the State of Northeast in defense of the law. Your analysis should deal only with the due process issue. Another law clerk has been assigned the task of writing an analysis of the other constitutional issues in the case.