The government lacks a substantial interest in excluding from K-12 public schools children who were not legally admitted into the country. Decided June 15, 1982 (argued December 1, 1981). Opinion of the Court: William J. Brennan → go there Dissenting: Burger. Applied: the Fourteenth Amendment → go there Topic: Other areas. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), is a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down both a state statute denying funding for education of undocumented immigrant children in the United States and an independent school district's attempt to charge an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each student to compensate for lost state funding. The Court found that any state restriction imposed on the rights afforded to children based on their immigration status must be examined under an intermediate scrutiny standard to determine whether it furthers a substantial government interest. Wiki link