The state’s highest court on Monday jumped head first into a controversial hot button issue: the debate over immigration policy.
The California Supreme Court weighed in Monday, voting unanimously to uphold a state law giving illegal immigrants a break on college tuition in California.
The law enacted in 2001 grants in-state tuition to any student who attended a California high school for at least three years and graduated, regardless of immigration status.
The law was challenged by out-of-state students and their families, who argued that they should not have to pay higher tuition while undocumented immigrants were allowed to pay the lower in state rate.
Justice Ming W. Chin, one of the more conservative justices, wrote in the ruling that the law is not based on legal residency, since it is given to students who have attended high school in California for at least three years, and not all those who meet those standards will necessarily be residents.
Out-of-state tuition costs a student about 11,000 more annually in the California State University system and roughly $23,000 a year at University of California Campuses.
While the ruling was hailed by immigration rights advocates, conservative groups such as the San Fernando Republican Club said they were disappointed with the court ruling.
