PER CURIAM:
We consider the constitutionality of a policy of the New York Thruway Authority that provides a toll discount to residents of Grand Island, New York, who must use bridges (jointly, "Grand Island Bridge" or the "bridge") in order to travel by car between their homes and any location not on Grand Island, while denying the discount to all other motorists. Plaintiffs in this putative class action are motorists who use the Grand Island Bridge but, because they are not residents of Grand Island, do not qualify for the lowest toll rate. They seek a judgment declaring that the toll discount policies violate the so-called dormant Commerce Clause as well as the constitutional right to travel that courts have located in the Privileges or Immunities and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, both in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
We first encountered this case in 2009 when we held, in substance, that plaintiffs' complaint survived defendants' motion to dismiss. See Selevan v. N.Y. Thruway Auth., 584 F.3d 82 (2d Cir.2009) ("Selevan I"). In particular, we affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Gary L. Sharpe, Judge), insofar as it
Plaintiffs-appellants Robert Selevan, Anne Rubin, David Talarico, and Samuel Taub (jointly, "plaintiffs") challenge the November 28, 2011 Memorandum Decision and Order of the District Court which, among other things, granted judgment in favor of the Thruway and its Chief Executive and Chairman, John L. Buono (jointly, "defendants" or "NYTA"). In this appeal, we are asked to consider whether the District Court: (1) should have reviewed plaintiffs' right-to-travel claims under the test of "strict scrutiny"; and (2) properly applied the three-factor test established by the Supreme Court in Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. County of Kent, 510 U.S. 355, 114 S.Ct. 855, 127 L.Ed.2d 183 (1994) ("Northwest Airlines"), to plaintiffs' right-to-travel and dormant Commerce Clause claims.
For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the District Court.
The municipality of Grand Island, New York is located on an island in the Niagara River, approximately halfway between Niagara Falls, New York and Buffalo, New York.
Plaintiffs Robert Selevan and Anne Rubin (jointly, "original plaintiffs"), residents of Nassau County, New York and Ontario, Canada, respectively, commenced this putative class action in March 2006. See id. at 86-87. The original plaintiffs allegedly paid the passenger rate to use the Grand Island Bridge, id. at 101, and claimed that the NYTA's toll scheme violated their constitutional rights, id. at 88-89. In a careful opinion dated January 18, 2007, the District Court dismissed the complaint of the original plaintiffs. Id. at 87.
In Selevan I, we affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded the action to the District Court for further proceedings, holding that the original plaintiffs had stated claims under the dormant Commerce Clause and pursuant to their constitutional right to travel under the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities and Equal Protection Clauses. Id. at 104. We directed that on remand "plaintiffs' dormant Commerce Clause and right to travel claims must be analyzed under the three-factor test set forth by the Supreme Court in Northwest Airlines ...." Id.
Following our remand of the cause to the District Court, the original plaintiffs amended their complaint to add David Talarico and Samuel Taub, two residents of Erie County, New York, who allegedly paid the commuter rate. Plaintiffs also restated their dormant Commerce Clause and right-to-travel claims. On November 28, 2011, the District Court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment in its entirety. This timely appeal followed.
We review a district court's summary judgment de novo, see Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. v. Hudson River-Black River Regulating Dist., 673 F.3d 84, 94 (2d Cir. 2012), with "[a]ll evidence submitted on the motion ... construed in the manner most favorable to the nonmoving party," Horvath v. Westport Library Ass'n, 362 F.3d 147, 151 (2d Cir.2004). "Summary judgment is appropriate only if the moving party shows that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Georgitsi Realty, LLC v. Penn-Star Ins. Co., 702 F.3d 152, 155 (2d Cir. 2012) (quotation marks omitted). A defendant is entitled to summary judgment where "the plaintiff[s] [have] failed to come forth with evidence sufficient to permit a reasonable juror to return a verdict in his or her favor on" an essential element of a claim on which the plaintiffs bear the burden of proof. In re Omnicom Grp., Inc. Sec. Litig., 597 F.3d 501, 509 (2d Cir.2010) (quotation marks omitted).
On appeal, defendants reassert the claim that plaintiffs lack standing to bring this action. We rejected this argument in Selevan I, before the parties conducted discovery, but defendants now renew their standing argument by asserting that plaintiffs have failed to sustain their evidentiary burden. Plaintiffs, in turn, claim that the District Court (1) erred by not reviewing their right-to-travel claims under the test
To establish Article III standing, plaintiffs must demonstrate an "(1) injury-in-fact, which is a `concrete and particularized' harm to a `legally protected interest'; (2) causation in the form of a `fairly traceable' connection between the asserted injury-in-fact and the alleged actions of the defendant; and (3) redressability, or a non-speculative likelihood that the injury can be remedied by the requested relief." W.R. Huff Asset Mgmt. Co. v. Deloitte & Touche LLP, 549 F.3d 100, 106-07 (2d Cir.2008) (emphasis omitted) (quoting Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)).
In Selevan I, we held that "[i]nasmuch as plaintiffs [had] alleged that they have paid higher tolls as a result of NYTA's policy, they have articulated a commercial, economic injury that is concrete and specific to them, and is caused by NYTA's alleged violation of the Commerce Clause." 584 F.3d at 89 (quotation marks omitted). Defendants nevertheless ask us to revisit our holding based on an affidavit of the NYTA's chief financial officer, which states that the financial impact of the resident discount on nonresident motorists is negligible and that the "NYTA does not charge higher tolls to other users of the [Grand Island Bridge] or the overall Thruway system because of the resident discount." Appellees' Br. 30 (emphasis supplied). In short, defendants argue that because the plaintiffs have "offered no proof ... that the tolls they pay are inflated because of the resident discount or that termination of the [resident] discount would likely result in a reduction of [the passenger rate or the commuter rate] paid by plaintiffs[,]" they lack standing. Id. at 31.
As we noted in Selevan I, however, "plaintiffs define their injury as the burden of paying higher toll rates than Grand Island residents and the denial of toll discounts based on their residency status." 584 F.3d at 89 (alterations and quotation marks omitted). The asserted fact that plaintiffs pay higher tolls than the Grand Island residents is not disputed, and it is sufficient to establish Article III standing, regardless of how the NYTA would establish tolls for the Grand Island Bridge absent the discount for island residents. See id. at 89 (Article III standing), 91-92 (prudential standing).
On appeal, plaintiffs claim that the Grand Island Bridge toll scheme infringes upon a "fundamental right" — their constitutional right to travel — and therefore must be analyzed under the test of strict scrutiny. Courts have long recognized that the Constitution protects a right to travel within the United States, including for purely intrastate travel. See, e.g., Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489, 500, 119 S.Ct. 1518, 143 L.Ed.2d 689 (1999) (noting that the right to travel "protects the right of a citizen of one State to enter and to leave another State, the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second State, and, for those travelers who elect to become permanent residents, the right to be treated like other citizens of that State"); Williams v. Town of Greenburgh, 535 F.3d 71, 75 (2d Cir.2008).
Generally, "[w]hen a local regulation infringes upon a constitutionally-protected right, we apply [the test of] strict scrutiny, requiring the municipality to show that the regulation is narrowly tailored
Plaintiffs misread Selevan I. Our discussion of the facts alleged in the original complaint was merely illustrative of how and why the toll did not constitute a "penalty." Contrary to plaintiffs' view, we did not indicate that "the district court could and should apply strict scrutiny ... if the plaintiffs included individuals who traveled the [Grand Island Bridge] in the course of commuting to work...." Appellants' Br. 20. Rather, in contemplation of a remand to the District Court, we drew the attention of the trial court and the parties to Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 405 U.S. 707, 92 S.Ct. 1349, 31 L.Ed.2d 620 (1972) ("Evansville"), where the Supreme Court "recognized a difference between the sort of `invidious distinctions' that penalize the right to travel and cases in which a state has simply levied `a charge designed only to make the user of state-provided facilities pay a reasonable fee to help defray the costs of their construction and maintenance.'" Selevan I, 584 F.3d at 102 (citations omitted) (quoting Evansville, 405 U.S. at 714, 92 S.Ct. 1349). Indeed, the Evansville Court permitted the imposition of "fees designed to offset the cost of maintaining a state-provided facility ... [so long as the fees] `reflect[ed] a uniform, fair and practical standard relating to public expenditures.'" Selevan I, 584 F.3d at 102 (quoting Evansville, 405 U.S. at 716, 92 S.Ct. 1349).
In Selevan I, we instructed the District Court on remand to reexamine the Grand Island Bridge toll policy with an eye to determining "whether the toll policy implicates the right to travel in the context discussed in Evansville." 584 F.3d at 102. We explained that, if the District Court were to find that the toll policy involved "invidious distinctions," then the test of strict scrutiny would apply; if it were to determine that the toll policy was merely "a minor restriction on travel," then the three-part test announced in the Supreme Court's subsequent decision in Northwest Airlines, 510 U.S. at 369, 114 S.Ct. 855, would govern. Id. On remand, the District Court concluded that since the "toll structure constitutes a reasonable user fee designed to defray the costs of maintenance and construction ... strict scrutiny is inappropriate." Selevan v. N.Y. Thruway Auth., No. 06-cv-291(GLS/DRH), 2011 WL 5974988, at *6 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 28, 2011). In short, the mere addition of plaintiffs who pay the commuter rate did not transform a minor restriction on travel into an instance of invidious distinctions. See Selevan I, 584 F.3d at 101. Hence, as the District Court held, the toll policy is subject to the Northwest Airlines test and not the test of strict scrutiny.
Under Northwest Airlines, the constitutional permissibility of fees charged for the use of state facilities is evaluated under a three-part test, which asks whether the fee "(1) is based on some fair approximation of use of the facilities, (2) is not excessive in relation to the benefits conferred, and (3) does not discriminate against interstate commerce." Northwest Airlines, 510 U.S. at 369, 114 S.Ct. 855. On remand, the District Court determined that the Grand Island Bridge toll scheme satisfied all three parts of the test. Selevan, 2011 WL 5974988, at *3-7. Plaintiffs challenge that holding, requiring us, in turn, to analyze each part of the test.
To determine whether the Grand Island Bridge toll policy "is based on some fair approximation of use of the facilities," Northwest Airlines, 510 U.S. at 369, 114 S.Ct. 855, we directed the District Court to "consider whether the NYTA policy at issue reflects `rational distinctions among different classes of' motorists using the Bridge, so that each user, on the whole, pays some approximation of his or her fair share of the state's cost for maintaining the Bridge." Selevan I, 584 F.3d at 98 (emphasis added) (quoting Evansville, 405 U.S. at 718, 92 S.Ct. 1349). The District Court concluded that the resident discount is meant to alleviate both the severe geographic "isolation" faced by Grand Island residents and the "residuary effects of nearly 25 million non-resident travelers bisecting the[ ] island annually." Selevan, 2011 WL 5974988, at *5.
We find these factors to be "not [a] wholly unreasonable" basis upon which to draw a distinction between Grand Island residents, who, because of the small size and isolation of Grand Island, may need to use the bridge and pay the toll several times a day, and other motorists using the bridge. Evansville, 405 U.S. at 718, 92 S.Ct. 1349.
Accordingly, we conclude that the District Court did not err in deciding that the Grand Island Bridge toll scheme is "a fair,
To satisfy the second part of the Northwest Airlines test, the Grand Island toll cannot be "excessive in relation to the benefits conferred." 510 U.S. at 369, 114 S.Ct. 855. As we emphasized in Selevan I, however, "there need not be a perfect fit between the use of the Bridge and the support of the Bridge by the toll. The Northwest Airlines test is not inflexible; it simply requires reasonableness." Selevan I, 584 F.3d at 98 (quotation marks, citations, and alterations omitted). After discovery, and based on evidence regarding NYTA's costs and expenditures, the District Court determined that the NYTA had not been collecting excess revenues from its Grand Island tolls. Selevan, 2011 WL 5974988, at *5. This conclusion was based, in part, upon the reasonable view that any revenues collected did not exceed proper margins, given the NYTA's public safety responsibilities and its expenses for construction and maintenance. Id.
Upon a review of the record, we agree with the District Court's decision on this factor, substantially for the reasons outlined in its November 28, 2011 Memorandum Decision and Order. Id.
In Selevan I, we held that "plaintiffs have not alleged that NYTA's toll policy `discriminates' against interstate commerce." 584 F.3d at 95. Consequently, we noted that unless plaintiffs amended their complaint to identify an in-state interest that was being favored at the expense of competing out-of-state interests, the District Court did not need to assess whether the toll discriminated against interstate commerce on remand. Id. at 95, 98 n. 4. Although plaintiffs subsequently amended their complaint, the District
Consistent with our earlier instructions, the District Court did not err by not considering this part of the Northwest Airlines test.
For the reasons stated above, we hold that:
(1) plaintiffs have standing under Article III of the Constitution;
(2) the toll policy at issue here was a minor restriction on travel and did not involve "invidious distinctions" that would require strict scrutiny analysis pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution;
(3) the District Court correctly used, in the alternative, the three-part test set forth in Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. County of Kent, 510 U.S. 355, 114 S.Ct. 855, 127 L.Ed.2d 183 (1994), to evaluate both plaintiffs' right-to-travel and dormant Commerce Clause claims; and
(4) the Grand Island Bridge toll scheme (a) is based on "some fair approximation of use" of the bridges, (b) is not "excessive in relation to the benefits" it confers, and (c) does not "discriminate against interstate commerce."
Accordingly, the November 28, 2011 Memorandum Decision and Order of the District Court is