concurring.
While I join the Court opinion, I do so without in any way retreating from my opinion in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 1, 70-133 (1973) (dissenting opinion). I continue to believe that an individual’s interest in education is fundamental, and that this view is amply supported “by the unique status accorded public education by our society, and by the close relationship between education and some of our most basic constitutional values.” *231Id., at 111. Furthermore, I believe that the facts of these cases demonstrate the wisdom of rejecting a rigidified approach to equal protection analysis, and of employing an approach that allows for varying levels of scrutiny depending upon “the constitutional and societal importance of the interest adversely affected and the recognized invidiousness of the basis upon which the particular classification is drawn.” Id., at 99. See also Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 519-521 (1970) (Marshall, J., dissenting). It continues to be my view that a class-based denial of public education is utterly incompatible with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Justice Blackmun,concurring.
I join the opinion and judgment of the Court.
Like Justice Powell, I believe that the children involved in this litigation “should not be left on the streets uneducated.” Post, at 238. I write separately, however, because in my view the nature of the interest at stake is crucial to the proper resolution of these cases.
The “fundamental rights” aspect of the Court’s equal protection analysis — the now-familiar concept that governmental classifications bearing on certain interests must be closely scrutinized — has been the subject of some controversy. Justice Harlan, for example, warned that “[v]irtually every state statute affects important rights. . . . [T]o extend the ‘compelling interest’ rule to all cases in which such rights are affected would go far toward making this Court a ‘super-legislature.’ ” Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 661 (1969) (dissenting opinion). Others have noted that strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause is unnecessary when classifications infringing enumerated constitutional rights are involved, for “a state law that impinges upon a substantive right or liberty created or conferred by the Constitution is, of course, presumptively invalid, whether or not the law’s purpose or effect is to create any classifications.” San Antonio *232Independent School Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 1, 61 (1973) (Stewart, J., concurring). See Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S., at 659 (Harlan, J., dissenting). Still others have suggested that fundamental rights are not properly a part of equal protection analysis at all, because they are unrelated to any defined principle of equality.1
These considerations, combined with doubts about the judiciary’s ability to make fine distinctions in assessing the effects of complex social policies, led the Court in Rodriguez to articulate a firm rule: fundamental rights are those that “explicitly or implicitly [are] guaranteed by the Constitution.” 411 U. S., at 33-34. It therefore squarely rejected the notion that “an ad hoc determination as to the social or economic importance” of a given interest is relevant to the level of scrutiny accorded classifications involving that interest; id., at 32, and made clear that “[i]t is not the province of this Court to create substantive constitutional rights in the name of guaranteeing equal protection of the laws.” Id., at 33.
I joined Justice Powell’s opinion for the Court in Rodriguez, and I continue to believe that it provides the appropriate model for resolving most equal protection disputes. Classifications infringing substantive constitutional rights necessarily will be invalid, if not by force of the Equal Protection Clause, then through operation of other provisions of the Constitution. Conversely, classifications bearing on nonconstitutional interests — even those involving “the most basic economic needs of impoverished human beings,” Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 485 (1970) — generally are not subject to special treatment under the Equal Protection Clause, because they are not distinguishable in any relevant way from other regulations in “the area of economics and social welfare.” Ibid.
With all this said, however, I believe the Court’s experience has demonstrated that the Rodriguez formulation does *233not settle every issue of “fundamental rights” arising under the Equal Protection Clause. Only a pedant would insist that there are no meaningful distinctions among the multitude of social and political interests regulated by the States, and Rodriguez does not stand for quite so absolute a proposition. To the contrary, Rodriguez implicitly acknowledged that certain interests, though not constitutionally guaranteed, must be accorded a special place in equal protection analysis. Thus, the Court’s decisions long have accorded strict scrutiny to classifications bearing on the right to vote in state elections, and Rodriguez confirmed the “constitutional underpinnings of the right to equal treatment in the voting process.” 411 U. S., at 34, n. 74. Yet “the right to vote, per se, is not a constitutionally protected right,” id., at 35, n. 78. See Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U. S. 663, 665 (1966); Rodriguez, 411 U. S., at 59, n. 2 (Stewart, J., concurring). Instead, regulation of the electoral process receives unusual scrutiny because “the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights.” Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 562 (1964). See Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330, 336 (1972). In other words, the right to vote is accorded extraordinary treatment because it is, in equal protection terms, an extraordinary right: a citizen2 cannot hope to achieve any meaningful degree of individual political equality if granted an inferior right of participation in the political process. Those denied the vote are relegated, by state fiat, in a most basic way to second-class status.
It is arguable, of course, that the Court never should have applied fundamental rights doctrine in the fashion outlined above. Justice Harlan, for one, maintained that strict equal protection scrutiny was appropriate only when racial or anal*234ogous classifications were at issue. Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S., at 658-663 (dissenting opinion). See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S., at 590-591 (Harlan, J., dissenting). But it is too late to debate that point, and I believe that accepting the principle of the voting cases — the idea that state classifications bearing on certain interests pose the risk of allocating rights in a fashion inherently contrary to any notion of “equality” — dictates the outcome here. As both Justice Powell and The Chief Justice observe, the Texas scheme inevitably will create “a subclass of illiterate persons,” post, at 241 (Powell, J., concurring); see post, at 242, 254 (Burger, C. J., dissenting); where I differ with The Chief Justice is in my conclusion that this makes the statutory scheme unconstitutional as well as unwise.
In my view, when the State provides an education to some and denies it to others, it immediately and inevitably creates class distinctions of a type fundamentally inconsistent with those purposes, mentioned above, of the Equal Protection Clause. Children denied an education are placed at a permanent and insurmountable competitive disadvantage, for an uneducated child is denied even the opportunity to achieve. And when those children are members of an identifiable group, that group — through the State’s action — will have been converted into a discrete underclass. Other benefits provided by the State, such as housing and public assistance, are of course important; to an individual in immediate need, they may be more desirable than the right to be educated. But classifications involving the complete denial of education are in a sense unique, for they strike at the heart of equal protection values by involving the State in the creation of permanent class distinctions. Cf. Rodriguez, 411 U. S., at 115, n. 74 (Marshall, J., dissenting). In a sense, then, denial of an education is the analogue of denial of the right to vote: the former relegates the individual to second-class social status; the latter places him at a permanent political disadvantage.
*235This conclusion is fully consistent with Rodriguez. The Court there reserved judgment on the constitutionality of a state system that “occasioned an absolute denial of educational opportunities to any of its children,” noting that “no charge fairly could be made that the system [at issue in Rodriguez] fails to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire . . . basic minimal skills.” Id., at 37. And it cautioned that in a case “involving] the most persistent and difficult questions of educational policy,. . . [the] Court’s lack of specialized knowledge and experience counsels against premature interference with the informed judgments made at the state and local levels.” Id., at 42. Thus Rodriguez held, and the Court now reaffirms, that “a State need not justify by compelling necessity every variation in the manner in which education is provided to its population.” Ante, at 223. Similarly, it is undeniable that education is not a “fundamental right” in the sense that it is constitutionally guaranteed. Here, however, the State has undertaken to provide an education to most of the children residing within its borders. And, in contrast to the situation in Rodriguez, it does not take an advanced degree to predict the effects of a complete denial of education upon those children targeted by the State’s classification. In such circumstances, the voting decisions suggest that the State must offer something more than a rational basis for its classification.3
Concededly, it would seem ironic to discuss the social necessity of an education in a case that concerned only undocumented aliens “whose very presence in the state and this country is illegal.” Post, at 250 (Burger, C. J., dissenting). But because of the nature of the federal immigration laws and the pre-eminent role of the Federal Government in *236regulating immigration, the class of children here is not a monolithic one. Thus, the District Court in the Alien Children Education case found as a factual matter that a significant number of illegal aliens will remain in this country permanently, 501 F. Supp. 544, 558-559 (SD Tex. 1980); that some of the children involved in this litigation are “document-able,” id., at 573; and that “[m]any of the undocumented children are not deportable. None of the named plaintiffs is under an order of deportation.” Id., at 583, n. 103. As the Court’s alienage cases demonstrate, these children may not be denied rights that are granted to citizens, excepting only those rights bearing on political interests. See Nyquist v. Mauclet, 432 U. S. 1 (1977). And, as Justice Powell notes, the structure of the immigration statutes makes it impossible for the State to determine which aliens are entitled to residence, and which eventually will be deported. Post, at 240-241, n. 6. Indeed, any attempt to do so would involve the State in the administration of the immigration laws. Whatever the State's power to classify deportable aliens, then — and whatever the Federal Government’s ability to draw more precise and more acceptable alienage classifications — the statute at issue here sweeps within it a substantial number of children who will in fact, and who may well be entitled to, remain in the United States. Given the extraordinary nature of the interest involved, this makes the classification here fatally imprecise. And, as the Court demonstrates, the Texas legislation is not otherwise supported by any substantial interests.
Because I believe that the Court’s carefully worded analysis recognizes the importance of the equal protection and preemption interests I consider crucial, I join its opinion as well as its judgment.
Justice Powell,concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court, and write separately to emphasize the unique character of the cases before us.
*237The classification in question severely disadvantages children who are the victims of a combination of circumstances. Access from Mexico into this country, across our 2,000-mile border, is readily available and virtually uncontrollable. Illegal aliens are attracted by our employment opportunities, and perhaps by other benefits as well. This is a problem of serious national proportions, as the Attorney General recently has recognized. See ante, at 218-219, n. 17. Perhaps because of the intractability of the problem, Congress— vested by the Constitution with the responsibility of protecting our borders and legislating with respect to aliens — has not provided effective leadership in dealing with this prob^ lem.1 It therefore is certain that illegal aliens will continue *238to enter the United States and, as the record makes clear, an unknown percentage of them will remain here. I agree with the Court that their children should not be left on the streets uneducated.
Although the analogy is not perfect, our holding today does find support in decisions of this Court with respect to the status of illegitimates. In Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 406 U. S. 164, 175 (1972), we said: “[V]isiting . . . condemnation on the head of an infant” for the misdeeds of the parents is illogical, unjust, and “contrary to the basic concept of our system that legal burdens should bear some relationship to individual responsibility or wrongdoing.”
In these cases, the State of Texas effectively denies to the school-age children of illegal aliens the opportunity to attend the free public schools that the State makes available to all residents. They are excluded only because of a status resulting from the violation by parents or guardians of our immigration laws and the fact that they remain in our country unlawfully. The appellee children are innocent in this respect. They can “affect neither their parents’ conduct nor their own status.” Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762, 770 (1977).
Our review in a case such as these is properly heightened.2 See id., at 767. Cf. Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190 (1976). The classification at issue deprives a group of children of the opportunity for education afforded all other children simply because they have been assigned a legal status due to a violation of law by their parents. These children thus have been *239singled out for a lifelong penalty and stigma. A legislative classification that threatens the creation of an underclass of future citizens and residents cannot be reconciled with one of the fundamental purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. In these unique circumstances, the Court properly may require that the State’s interests be substantial and that the means bear a “fair and substantial relation” to these interests.3 See Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259, 265 (1978) (“classifications based on illegitimacy . . . are invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment if they are not substantially related to permissible state interests”); id., at 271 (“[a]s the State’s interests are substantial, we now consider the means adopted”).
In my view, the State’s denial of education to these children bears no substantial relation to any substantial state interest. Both of the District Courts found that an uncertain but significant percentage of illegal alien children will remain in Texas as residents and many eventually will become citizens. The discussion by the Court, ante, at Part V, of the State’s purported interests demonstrates that they are poorly served by the educational exclusion. Indeed, the interests relied upon by the State would seem to be insubstantial in view of the consequences to the State itself of wholly uneducated persons living indefinitely within its borders. By contrast, access to the public schools is made available to the children of lawful residents without regard to the tempo*240rary nature of their residency in the particular Texas school district.4 The Court of Appeals and the District Courts that addressed these cases concluded that the classification could not satisfy even the bare requirements of rationality. One need not go so far to conclude that the exclusion of appellees’ class5 of children from state-provided education is a type of punitive discrimination based on status that is impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause.
In reaching this conclusion, I am not unmindful of what must be the exasperation of responsible citizens and government authorities in Texas and other States similarly situated. Their responsibility, if any, for the influx of aliens is slight compared to that imposed by the Constitution on the Federal Government.6 So long as the ease of entry remains inviting, *241and the power to deport is exercised infrequently by the Federal Government, the additional expense of admitting these children to public schools might fairly be shared by the Federal and State Governments. But it hardly can be argued rationally that anyone benefits from the creation within our borders of a subclass of illiterate persons many of whom will remain in the State, adding to the problems and costs of both State and National Governments attendant upon unemployment, welfare, and crime.
See, e. g., Perry, Modem Equal Protection: A Conceptualization and Appraisal, 79 Colum. L. Rev. 1023, 1075-1083 (1979).
The Court concludes that the provision at issue must be invalidated “unless it furthers some substantial goal of the State.’’ Ante, at 224. Since the statute fails to survive this level of scrutiny, as the Court demonstrates, there is no need to determine whether a more probing level of review would be appropriate.
Article I, § 8, cl. 4, of the Constitution provides: “The Congress shall have Power... To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” The Federal Government has “broad constitutional powers in determining what aliens shall be admitted to the United States, the period they may remain, regulation of their conduct before naturalization, and the terms and conditions of their naturalization.” Takahashi v. Fish & Game Comm’n, 334 U. S. 410, 419 (1948). See Graham v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 365, 378 (1971) (regulation of aliens is “constitutionally entrusted to the Federal Government”). The Court has traditionally shown great deference to federal authority over immigration and to federal classifications based upon alienage. See, e. g., Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U. S. 787, 792 (1977) (“it is important to underscore the limited scope of judicial inquiry into immigration legislation”); Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, 342 U. S. 580, 588-589 (1952) (“It is pertinent to observe that any policy toward aliens is vitally and intricately interwoven with contemporaneous policies in regard to the conduct of foreign relations, the war power, and the maintenance of a republican form of government. Such matters are so exclusively entrusted to the political branches of government as to be largely immune from judicial inquiry or interference”). Indeed, even equal protection analysis in this area is based to a large extent on an underlying theme of pre-emption and exclusive federal power over immigration. See Takahashi v. Fish & Game Comm’n, supra, at 420 (the Federal Government has admitted resident aliens to the country “on an equality of legal privileges with all citizens under nondiscriminatory laws” and the States may not alter the terms of this admission). Compare Graham v. Richardson, supra, and Sugarman v. Dougall, 413 U. S. 634 (1973), with Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U. S. 67 (1976), *238and Hampton v. Mow Sun Wong, 426 U. S. 88 (1976). Given that the States’ power to regulate in this area is so limited, and that this is an area of such peculiarly strong federal authority, the necessity of federal leadership seems evident.
I emphasize the Court’s conclusion that strict scrutiny is not appropriately applied to this classification. This exacting standard of review has been reserved for instances in which a “fundamental” constitutional right or a “suspect” classification is present. Neither is present in these cases, as the Court holds.
The Chief Justice argues in his dissenting opinion that this heightened standard of review is inconsistent with the Court’s decision in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 1 (1973). But in Rodriguez no group of children was singled out by the State and then penalized because of their parents’ status. Rather, funding for education varied across the State because of the tradition of local control. Nor, in that case, was any group of children totally deprived of all education as in these cases. If the resident children of illegal aliens were denied welfare assistance, made available by government to all other children who qualify, this also — in my opinion — would be an impermissible penalizing of children because of their parents’ status.
The State provides free public education to all lawful residents whether they intend to reside permanently in the State or only reside in the State temporarily. See ante, at 227, n. 22. Of course a school district may require that illegal alien children, like any other children, actually reside in the school district before admitting them to the schools. A requirement of de facto residency, uniformly applied, would not violate any principle of equal protection.
The classes certified in these cases included all undocumented school-age children of Mexican origin residing in the school district, see ante, at 206, or the State. See In re Alien Children Education Litigation, 501 F. Supp. 544, 553 (SD Tex. 1980). Even so, it is clear that neither class was thought to include mature Mexican minors who were solely responsible for violating the immigration laws. In 458 F. Supp. 569 (ED Tex. 1978), the court characterized plaintiffs as “entire families who have migrated illegally.” Id., at 578. Each of the plaintiff children in that case was represented by a parent or guardian. Similarly the court in In re Alien Children Education Litigation found that “Undocumented children do not enter the United States unaccompanied by their parents.” 501 F. Supp., at 573. A different case would be presented in the unlikely event that a minor, old enough to be responsible for illegal entry and yet still of school age, entered this country illegally on his own volition.
In addition, the States’ ability to respond on their own to the problems caused by this migration may be limited by the principles of pre-emption that apply in this area. See, e. g., Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U. S. 52 *241(1941). In De Canas v. Bica, 424 U. S. 351 (1976), the Court found that a state law making it a criminal offense to employ illegal aliens was not preempted by federal authority over aliens and immigration. The Court found evidence that Congress intended state regulation in this area. Id., at 361 (“there is evidence . . . that Congress intends that States may, to the extent consistent with federal law, regulate the employment of illegal aliens”). Moreover, under federal immigration law, only immigrant aliens and nonimmigrant aliens with special permission are entitled to work. See 1 C. Gordon & H. Rosenfield, Immigration Law and Procedure, §§ 1.34a, 1.36, 2.6b (1981). Because federal law clearly indicates that only certain specified aliens may lawfully work in the country and because these aliens have documentation establishing this right, the State in De Canos was able to identify with certainty which aliens had a federal permission to work in this country. The State did not need to concern itself with an alien’s current or future deportability. By contrast, there is no comparable federal guidance in the area of education. No federal law invites state regulation; no federal regulations identify those aliens who have a right to attend public schools. In addition, the Texas educational exclusion requires the State to make predictions as to whether individual aliens eventually will be found to be deportable. But it is impossible for a State to determine which aliens the Federal Government will eventually deport, which the Federal Government will permit to stay, and which the Federal Government will ultimately naturalize. Until an undocumented alien is ordered deported by the Federal Government, no State can be assured that the alien will not be found to have a federal permission to reside in the country, perhaps even as a citizen. Indeed, even the Immigration and Naturalization Service cannot predict with certainty whether any individual alien has a right to reside in the country until deportation proceedings have run their course. See, e. g., 8 U. S, C. §§ 1252, 1253(h), 1254 (1976 ed. and Supp. IV).