7/24/2023 0 Comments Equal rights protection clause![]() 3 Sex equality arguments ask whether abortion restrictions are shaped solely by the state’s interest in protecting potential life, or whether such laws might also reflect constitutionally suspect judgments about women. Equality Arguments for Abortion RightsĮquality arguments for abortion rights range widely but share certain core concerns. In most respects but one, 2 however, we emphasize that a constitutional interpreter’s attention to the social organization of reproduction could play a more important role in determining the permissibility of various abortion-restrictive regulations than the particular constitutional clause on which an argument is based. Second, we address, separately, arguments based on the Due Process Clauses and the Equal Protection Clause. First, in this brief Essay we discuss equality arguments that Supreme Court justices have recognized-not arguments that social movement activists made in the years before Roe, that academics made in their wake, or that ordinary Americans might have made then or might make now. Finally, we explain why there may be independent political significance in grounding abortion rights in equality values.īefore proceeding, we offer two important caveats. These arguments first appear inside of substantive due process case law, and then as claims on the Equal Protection Clause. We then show how, over time, the Court and individual Justices have begun to employ equality arguments in analyzing the constitutionality of abortion restrictions. In this Essay, we describe some distinctive features of equality arguments for abortion rights. Supreme Court has come to recognize the abortion right as an equality right as well as a liberty right. 1 But in the four decades since Roe, the U.S. Wade grounds constitutional protections for women’s decision whether to end a pregnancy in the Due Process Clauses. Finally, Part IV explores state constitutions’ varying levels of scrutiny of sexual orientation classifications.Roe v. Texas-a landmark case in which the Supreme Court determined that homosexual people’s right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the right to engage in sexual conduct without interference from the government. Next, the section looks at how district and circuit courts have used the Romer standard10 to limit the rights granted in that decision and summarizes the pre- Obergefell circuit split on same-sex marriage and the resulting Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to marry to all same-sex couples in the 2013 Windsor decision12 and the 2015 Obergefell decision. Evans, which established the applicability of rational basis review for sexual orientation-based classifications. This section begins with an overview of Romer v. Part IV addresses discrimination based on sexual orientation under both the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause. Part III next discusses the standards of review that states apply in sex-based discrimination claims. Morales-Santana altered the framework for analyzing sex-based classifications. It also addresses the extent to which United States v. It first describes the federal intermediate scrutiny test and details common and contentious areas of the law. Part III considers sex-based classifications under the federal and state constitutions. ![]() Part II of this article provides an overview of the principles of constitutional equal protection, discusses the three levels of judicial scrutiny and their corresponding triggers, and briefly addresses potential alternatives. Classes are defined by an individual’s characteristics - for example, sex, sexual orientation, or race - and those classes determine the level of scrutiny received under the Equal Protection Clause. To establish an Equal Protection violation, a plaintiff must prove purposeful discrimination directed at an identifiable or suspect class. In addition to binding the states, it also applies to the federal government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. ![]() deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, ” is an invaluable tool for groups that experience discrimination. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads, “ o State shall.
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