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Fourteenth Amendment

All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside (overrides Dred Scott).
 

•No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States
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    Amendment XIV, § 1

Fourteenth Amendment

n. . . nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
 
nnor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

    nAmendment XIV, § 1

 

Equal Protection

. . . nor shall any State deprive any person . . . within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

14th Amendment, § 1

Equal Protection

Heightened scrutiny for:

    Discrimination Against a Suspect Class

        Disparate Treatment - facially discriminatory statute

        Disparate Impact - facially neutral statute with differential impact and intent to have
                                       that impact

    Infringement of a Fundamental Right

n

Justice Jackson

"[There] is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally."

p.519

Rational Basis Review

Equal protection is satisfied if the classification is "rationally related to a legitimate state interest" (New Orleans v. Dukes)

Rational Basis Review

  • Equal protection is violated "only if the classification rests on grounds wholly irrelevant to the achievement of the state’s objective."
  • "A statutory discrimination will not be set aside if any state of facts reasonably may be conceived to justify it."

    (McGowan, p.512)

Rational Basis Review

Similar to rational basis review under due process clause:

  • Inquiries into the constitutionality of a law "must be restricted to the issue whether any state of facts either known or which could reasonably be assumed affords support for it." (Carolene Products, p.763)

Rational Basis Review

"Evils in the same field may be of different dimensions and proportions, requiring different remedies. Or so the legislature may think. Or the reform may take one step at a time. . . . The legislature may select one phase of one field and apply a remedy there, neglecting the others." (Lee Optical, p.520)

Rational Basis Review

"Where there was evidence before the legislature reasonably supporting the classification, litigants may not procure invalidation of the legislation merely by tendering evidence in court that the legislature was mistaken." (Clover Leaf, p.513)

Moreno

"[A] bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot constitute a legitimate governmental interest. . . ." (p.508)