Class legislation — Law Dictionary

Definitions from Case Law

From 234 U.S. 224 - Keokee Consolidated Coke Co. v. Taylor · 1914Most cited · 239 citing opinions

It is established by repeated decisions that a statute aimed at what is deemed an evil, and hitting it presumably where experience shows it to be most felt, is not to be upset by thinking up and enumerating other instances to which it might have been applied equally well, so far as the court can see. That is for the legislature to judge unless the case is very clear.

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

Such as denies rights to one which are accorded to others, or inflicts upon one a more severe penalty than is imposed upon another in like case offending. See 99 Mich. 151, 41 Am. St. Rep. 589, 22 L. R. A. 696, 57 N. W. 1094.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

A term applied to statutory enactments which divide the people or subjects of legislation into classes, with reference either to the grant of privileges or the imposition of burdens, upon an arbitrary, unjust, or invidious principle of division, or which, though the principle of division may be sound and justifiable, make arbitrary discriminations between those persons or things coming within the same class. State v. Garbroski, 111 Iowa, 496, 82 N. W. 959, 56 L. R. A. 570, 82 Am. St. Rep. 524 ; In re Hang Kie, 69 Cal. 149, 10 Pac. 327; Hawkins v. Roberts, 122 Ala. 130, 27 South. 327; State v. Cooley, 56 Minn. 540, 58 N. W. 150; Wagner v. Milwaukee County, 112 Wis. 601, 88 N. W. 577; State v. Brewing Co., 104 Tenn. 715, 59 S. W. 1033, 78 Am. St. Rep. 941.

Defined under Class in Black's Law Dictionary.