Also known as: equal protection · equal protection principle · equal protections · equal protection clause · equal protection doctrine · 14th amendment equal protection
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A constitutional guarantee that prohibits states from denying any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The guarantee requires that similarly situated persons receive like treatment and subjects classifications to scrutiny calibrated to the nature of the distinction drawn.
Ethan Evans was born in State A to parents who had just arrived from abroad. State A officials refused to issue him a birth certificate listing him as a citizen. Ethan sued, asserting that the refusal violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
During jury selection in Ewan Eckhart's criminal trial, the prosecutor struck every Black venire member. Ewan made a record showing the pattern and asked the court to require a race-neutral explanation for the strikes.
Esme Ellington owned a single parcel surrounded by residential lots. The city rezoned only her land for commercial use after she requested the change. Neighboring owners sued, claiming the isolated rezoning lacked a legitimate public purpose.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Emanuel Escobar, an unmarried man, was denied a prescription for contraceptives that the state freely provided to married couples. He challenged the statute as treating similarly situated individuals differently without adequate justification.
Elliot Edmonds, a white man, and his Black fiancée applied for a marriage license in a state that prohibited interracial unions. The clerk denied the application solely because of their races.
Edward Everett moved to State B for work and applied for welfare benefits after three months. Officials denied the application under a one-year residency rule aimed at protecting the state treasury from new arrivals.
Racial classifications receive the most rigid scrutiny and cannot be upheld absent a legitimate purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination.
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Such requirements violate the Equal Protection Clause because they penalize the right to travel and rest on the impermissible objective of protecting the state treasury from new indigent arrivals.
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A rezoning that benefits only a single parcel or small area without a legitimate public purpose and inconsistent with the comprehensive plan may be invalid as arbitrary or as a denial of equal protection.
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…speaks of "persons born or naturalized in the United States." The word also appears both in the Due Process Clause and in the Equal Protection Clause. "Person" is used in other places in the Constitution: in the listing of qualifications for Representatives and Senators, Art. I, § 2, cl. 2, and § 3, cl. 3; in the Apportionment Clause,…