Also known as: rational-basis review · rational basis reviews · rational basis test · rational review
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A standard of judicial review under which a law or classification is upheld if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest. Courts applying this standard defer heavily to legislative judgments and tolerate underinclusive or overinclusive measures so long as any conceivable set of facts supports the connection to a proper purpose.
Roger Ramirez, a 49-year-old police officer in peak physical condition, challenges a city ordinance requiring retirement at age 50. The city defends the rule as a means to maintain a capable force. The court upholds the ordinance because the age limit bears a rational relationship to the legitimate goal of ensuring officer fitness.
Reliance Insurance seeks to hire engineers from several majority-Muslim countries for a government contract. An executive order bars their entry on national-security grounds. The company sues, citing statements suggesting religious animus. The court sustains the order because its stated security objective is plausibly advanced by the restriction.
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Ruby Rivera is prosecuted under a federal statute for possessing a firearm near a school. She argues the law exceeds Congress's commerce power. The court rejects mere rational basis review as the governing standard and holds that the statute exceeds Congress's authority.
Riley Rivera, a state employee with a disability, sues under Title I of the ADA after being denied a promotion. The state claims sovereign immunity. The court holds that Congress lacked power to abrogate immunity because age and disability classifications receive rational basis review and the remedy was not congruent and proportional to any pattern of unconstitutional conduct.
Roland Rhodes owns waterfront property that the city condemns and transfers to a private developer for a mixed-use project. Rhodes claims the taking lacks a public use. The court upholds the condemnation because economic development is a legitimate public purpose rationally furthered by the city's plan.
Ricardo Rojas publishes works whose copyrights are about to expire. Congress extends the term by twenty years. Rojas challenges the extension as exceeding Congress's power. The court sustains the statute because extending copyright terms is rationally related to the legitimate interest in encouraging creation and dissemination of works.
Rational basis review applies to classifications that are not suspect or quasi-suspect and to laws that do not burden fundamental rights. Age distinctions, most economic regulations, and immigration measures in the foreign-affairs context receive this deferential standard.
Courts permit substantial underinclusiveness and overinclusiveness under rational basis review. A law need only be rationally related to a legitimate purpose. It may advance that purpose one step at a time even if it leaves some problems unaddressed.
When the stated purpose is legitimate and the measure is rationally related to it, courts generally uphold the law even if extrinsic statements suggest an additional improper motive. This principle appears in both age-classification and immigration cases.
…Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States , 379 U. S., at 258-259. Thus, under commerce, as under due process, adoption of rational basis review expressed the recognition that the Court had no sustainable basis for subjecting economic regulation as such to judicial policy judgments, and for the past half century the Court has no…