Also known as: rational-basis scrutiny · rational basis review · rational basis test
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A deferential standard of judicial review that upholds a classification if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest. The standard applies to classifications that are neither suspect nor quasi-suspect and that do not burden a fundamental right. Courts defer heavily to legislative judgments and sustain laws that are underinclusive or overinclusive so long as any reasonably conceivable set of facts supports the classification.
Roberto Reyes, a fifty-one-year-old police officer, remains physically fit and passes every department fitness test. The city nevertheless enforces a statute requiring retirement at age fifty. A court upholds the statute because the age cutoff is rationally related to the legitimate goal of maintaining a physically capable force.
Rina Rahman, a national of a majority-Muslim country, seeks entry to the United States to attend pilot training. An executive order bars nationals from several designated countries on national-security grounds. A court sustains the order under rational basis review because the stated security purpose is rationally related to the entry restrictions.
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Rhea Reynolds is prosecuted under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act for carrying a handgun near a school. She argues that Congress lacked power to enact the statute. A court applies rational basis review to the commerce-power claim because Congress could rationally conclude that gun possession near schools affects interstate commerce.
Ralph Richardson, a state employee with a disability, sues the state for money damages under Title I of the ADA after being denied a promotion. The state moves to dismiss on Eleventh Amendment grounds. A court holds that Congress lacked Section 5 power to abrogate immunity because age and disability classifications receive only rational basis review and the remedy was not congruent and proportional.
Robert Rivera and his partner are arrested under a state sodomy statute that criminalizes private consensual conduct. They challenge the law on equal-protection and due-process grounds. A court applies rational basis review and invalidates the statute because moral disapproval alone does not supply a legitimate state interest.
Renee Rogers, a student in a low-property-tax district, sues the state alleging that unequal school funding violates equal protection. The state defends the property-tax-based system. A court applies rational basis review and upholds the funding scheme because local control of education is a legitimate interest and the classification is rationally related to that interest.
Rational basis review applies when a classification is neither suspect nor quasi-suspect and does not burden a fundamental right. Age, disability, and most economic or social classifications receive this standard. Federal alienage classifications also receive rational basis review because of Congress's plenary power over immigration.
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No. Under rational basis review a law may be underinclusive or overinclusive so long as it is rationally related to a legitimate purpose. Courts defer to legislative judgments and uphold classifications supported by any reasonably conceivable set of facts.
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No. A bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group or mere moral disapproval does not constitute a legitimate governmental interest. Laws resting solely on such grounds fail even rational basis review.
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Federal alienage classifications receive rational basis review because Congress possesses plenary power over immigration and foreign affairs. State alienage classifications generally trigger strict scrutiny except in narrow governmental-function contexts.
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…the ground that "[t]he crafting and safeguarding of public morality . . . indisputably is a legitimate government interest under rational basis scrutiny"); Milner v. Apfel , 148 F. 3d 812, 814 (CA7 1998) (citing Bowers for the proposition that "[l]egislatures are permitted to legislate with regard to morality . . . rather than confined…