[Music]
so the rational basis test
is the baseline test that courts use to
determine whether statutes
are consistent with both due process
and equal protection it's the baseline
test that all laws have to pass it
requires that every law
be first hypothetically designed to
serve
a legitimate governmental purpose
something that we think
government should in fact be able to do
and it further requires that
that law be reasonably related to that
purpose that is
it requires that the law in some way
actually serve
the purpose for which it is enacted the
presumption is
that a law is in fact constitutional and
therefore the burden is on anyone
challenging that law to show that it was
not established for a legitimate purpose
or that it doesn't reasonably further
that purpose and thus
doesn't really deserve to be a law many
writers of the american revolution
argued that the acts such as the stamp
act were in fact
not law because they were contrary to
reason that is they did not have
a rational basis probably the best
formulation of what i like to call the
classic rational basis test comes from
1880 there was a case soon after the
14th amendment
applied due process equal protection to
state laws it's muggler versus kansas
dealing with the sale of liquor and in
that case
the court upheld the statute as most
statutes
under rational basis are in fact valid
statutes
but it said not just everything that the
legislature passes
is worthy of being a law rather it does
have to
reasonably further some legitimate
interest
then in 1938 caroline products
established the tiered
scrutiny that we have today that is this
idea that
under the due process clause we have
strict scrutiny for
laws that interfere with fundamental
rights but
rational basis scrutiny for laws that
just
affect any other rights we have that are
non-fundamental so in 1952 the supreme
court decided
a case from oklahoma which is williams
versus lee
optical and oklahoma law was a measure
to protect
optometrists from these new opticians
who were
pushing in to their business and in that
case
what the court adopted was what we
tend to call the modern version of the
rational basis test
and under this modern version although
the elements of the rational basis test
are the same
the tests for establishing those
elements are not so
the legitimate interest doesn't actually
have to be the interest that
motivated the passage of the statute in
fact it doesn't even have to be an
interest
that the legislature even considered it
can be
anything that courts think might be
legitimate then the second element of
the test
which generally requires that the law be
reasonably related to that interest it's
enough if
the legislature might have thought
that it was reasonably related that is
it can be totally unrelated
all we care about is that they
reasonably thought it might be
and so the rational basis test today has
in fact become
a completely hypothetical speculative
test
there's no burden on the government to
introduce anything
the burden is rather on the challenger
to hypothetically think
what are the multitude of reasons that
might justify this law and then courts
have to speculate
could a reasonable legislature have
thought
that this would further this legitimate
interest
there is in fact a fairly robust debate
in the legal academy
dealing with rational basis now there
have been people who have
argued for a higher standard
than even the classic rational basis
test
for all rights any statute that affects
life
liberty property is unconstitutional
unless the government can show
that there is a valid reason for it
there are a number of
legal scholars that are in favor of a
rational basis test
that is more robust that is closer to
the classical
formulation there are some legal
scholars who
adhere to this idea that we don't
actually need a rational basis test if a
law isn't affecting a suspect class or
isn't affecting a fundamental right
then the government should be pretty
much free to do
whatever it wants the rational basis
test
is the default level that all laws must
pass
under due process scrutiny so any law
that affects
life liberty or property has to at its
bottom
hypothetically serves some legitimate
governmental purpose
and it must be reasonably related to the
interest
that it's trying to further if it
doesn't do that
then it fails the rational basis test
[Music]
you