Also known as: paternalistic
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A government's policy or practice of taking responsibility for the individual affairs of its citizens, especially by supplying their needs or regulating their conduct in a heavy-handed manner.
Paula Pierce, a solo practitioner, placed a newspaper notice listing her flat fee for uncontested divorces. State regulators ordered her to remove the notice, claiming the public needed protection from commercializing the profession. The court rejected the order because truthful price information is protected speech and the state cannot suppress it on paternalistic grounds about professional dignity.
Patricia Patel sought an abortion at a clinic without notifying her estranged husband. State law required spousal notice in nearly all cases. The court struck down the notice rule because it rested on an impermissible paternalistic assumption that husbands should control wives' reproductive decisions.
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Pavel Petrov, a bakery owner, was prosecuted for allowing employees to work more than sixty hours in a week. The state defended the limit as necessary to protect workers' health. The court invalidated the statute because it embodied a rejected paternalistic theory of economic regulation rather than a valid exercise of police power.
Pearl Porter could not pay the state's annual poll tax and was barred from voting. State officials argued the tax ensured only responsible citizens participated. The court rejected the tax because it rested on an impermissible paternalistic judgment about who deserves the franchise.
Pablo Perez, a prosecutor, used peremptory challenges to remove all male jurors from a paternity case. He claimed men would be biased against the mother. The court held the strikes unconstitutional because they rested on paternalistic stereotypes about how men and women think.
Pierce Patterson, a married man, sought to purchase condoms at a local store. State law prohibited sales of contraceptives except by prescription. The court invalidated the restriction because it reflected an impermissible paternalistic desire to control private marital decisions about procreation.
No. Such a statute rests on an archaic stereotype that husbands should control family economic decisions. Equal protection requires intermediate scrutiny, and a paternalistic allocation of rights within marriage fails that standard because it is not substantially related to an important governmental objective.
No. A flat ban on sales to persons under sixteen, combined with limits on adult access, unduly burdens the fundamental privacy right to decide about contraception. Generalized paternalistic concerns about minors or health do not satisfy strict scrutiny when less restrictive alternatives exist.
No. The rule directly targets intimate marital decisions about procreation. Marital privacy doctrine forbids the state from injecting itself into those choices through paternalistic measures aimed at promoting marital stability.
…provide ample support for refusing to recognize an open-ended constitutional right to commit suicide. Much more than the State's paternalistic interest in protecting the individual from the irrevocable consequences of an ill-advised decision motivated by temporary concerns is at stake. There is truth in John Donne's observation…