Substantive Due Process and Equal Protection Exam Review

Flashcards covering key concepts related to Substantive Due Process and the Equal Protection Clause.

Due Process Clauses

Clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protecting against deprivation of life, liberty, and property without due process of law.

Procedural Due Process Rights

Constitutional rights a person has in the criminal justice system.

Substantive Due Process Rights

Fundamental liberty interests or rights interpreted to flow from the Due Process Clauses.

Rights carved out of the Due Process Clause

Parental Rights, Marital Rights and Privacy and Bodily Autonomy interests.

Strict Scrutiny

A standard used by courts when evaluating statutes that impinge upon fundamental rights.

Lochner v. New York, 1905

Struck down a New York law capping maximum hours for bakers, asserting it violated freedom to contract.

West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish

Overruled Adkins and ended the Lochner era, ruling that the state had policing power to create minimum wage laws.

Roe v. Wade, 1973

Held that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause was the source of the liberty right on which abortion rights were based before viability.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 1992

Upheld Roe's basic ruling but developed the 'undue burden' standard for evaluating abortion regulations.

Dobbs v. Jackson, 2022

Overruled Roe and Casey, asserting that the right to abortion had no textual support in the Constitution.

Justice Thomas's assertion

Argued that Griswold and Obergefell should be revisited in light of the Dobbs decision.

Stare Decisis

Contributes to the integrity of the judicial process by ensuring decisions are founded in law.

Living Constitutionalist Approach

An approach to the Due Process Clause, where the Constitution must adapt to a future 'seen dimly'.

Equal Protection Clause

Protects against the state depriving an individual of equal protection of the laws.

Suspect Classifications

Classifications based on race, national origin, and alienage.

Quasi-suspect Classifications

Classifications based on gender and legitimacy.

Non-suspect classifications

Classifications including socioeconomic class, age, disability, sexual orientation, profession, among others.

Prima Facie case for Discrimination

Proof of facial discrimination or Discrimination by design

Fourteenth Amendment

Designed to protect the freedperson from violations of rights by the states.

Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 1886

Applied the Equal Protection Clause to national origin and to Chinese-Americans.

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

Established the doctrine of 'separate but equal' in interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

Found that in public education, separate was inherently unequal

Bakke case

The Supreme Court said that quotas are patently unconstitutional.

Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina, 2023

SCOTUS overruled Grutter and found that even the consideration of race as a factor in a holistic approach to admissions was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause