equal protection clause
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 239 U.S. 33 - William Truax v. Mike Raich · 1915Most cited · 2,037 citing opinions
aliens
The description, 'any person within its jurisdiction,' as it has frequently been held, includes aliens. These provisions are universal in their application, to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality; and the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws.
How the Supreme Court has restated “equal protection clause”
Each Supreme Court definition of “equal protection clause,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “equal protection clause”
Court decisions citing the 7 opinions that defined “equal protection clause” — 4,324 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 7 definitions, chronological · 1913–1954
- 1913·229 U.S. 123 - City and County of Denver v. New York Trust Company No 642 City and County of Denver[p34]· cited 232×ORIGINAL
The equal protection clause is directed only against arbitrary discrimination; that is, such as is without any reasonable basis... It does not prevent a city from applying the scheme of municipal ownership and maintenance to one public utility without applying it to all; nor does it prevent a city, owning and maintaining a municipal water plant, from refusing to grant franchises which will bring privately owned plants into competition with its own.
The equal protection clause does not require absolute uniformity, or prohibit every distinction in the laws of the state between ineligible aliens and other persons within its jurisdiction. The state has a wide discretion and may classify persons on bases that are reasonable and germane having regard to the purpose of the legislation.
the rights of all persons must rest upon the same rule under similar circumstances... the classification must be reasonable, not arbitrary, and must rest upon some ground of difference having a fair and substantial relation to the object of the legislation, so that all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike... mere difference is not enough; the attempted classification must always rest upon some difference which bears a reasonable and just relation to the act in respect to which the classification is proposed, and can never be made arbitrarily and without any such basis
the equal protection clause...does require that the classification be not arbitrary, but based on a real and substantial difference having a reasonable relation to the subject of the particular legislation
the classification be not arbitrary, but based on a real and substantial difference having a reasonable relation to the subject of the particular legislation.
classification test
The Equal Protection Clause relates to equality between persons as such rather than between areas.