Also known as: minimum-rationality standard · rational basis review · rational basis test
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A standard of judicial review under which a law or classification is upheld if it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest. Courts applying the standard defer heavily to legislative judgments and sustain measures even when they are underinclusive or overinclusive.
The city council enacts an ordinance requiring all police officers to retire at age fifty. Officer Michael Miller, who remains physically fit at fifty-one, sues claiming the rule violates equal protection. A court upholds the ordinance because the age limit is rationally related to the legitimate goal of maintaining a physically capable force.
The President issues an order barring entry of pilots from several majority-Muslim countries after intelligence reports flag heightened hijacking risks. Angelica, a foreign national from one of the listed countries, challenges the order on Establishment Clause grounds. A court sustains the order because it states a national-security purpose rationally connected to the restrictions.
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Congress enacts a statute prohibiting firearms within one thousand feet of any school. A high-school senior charged with carrying a handgun near campus moves to dismiss the indictment on Commerce Clause grounds. The court invalidates the statute because Congress could not rationally conclude that gun possession near schools substantially affects interstate commerce.
A federal statute grants automatic citizenship to a child born abroad to an unwed U.S.-citizen mother but requires an unwed U.S.-citizen father to establish a legal relationship before the child turns eighteen. A father denied citizenship for his son challenges the distinction. The court sustains the rule because it is rationally related to the legitimate interest in ensuring a demonstrated parent-child tie.
The minimum rationality standard applies to classifications that do not involve suspect or quasi-suspect classes and do not burden fundamental rights. Age, alienage classifications by the federal government, and most economic or social legislation receive this deferential review.
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No. Under minimum rationality review a court looks to whether the measure is rationally related to the stated legitimate purpose. Extrinsic statements suggesting improper motive do not invalidate the law when the text supplies a rational connection to a proper objective.
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Congress may not rely on the minimum rationality standard to justify broad remedies under Section 5. Legislation must be congruent and proportional to a documented pattern of unconstitutional state conduct. Measures that prohibit conduct valid under rational basis review exceed congressional power.
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The standard permits underinclusive or overinclusive measures. A law need only be rationally related to a legitimate purpose. It need not address every instance of the problem or avoid affecting some conduct outside the core concern.
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…Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States , 379 U. S., at 258-259. Thus, under commerce, as under due process, adoption of rational basis review expressed the recognition that the Court had no sustainable basis for subjecting economic regulation as such to judicial policy judgments, and for the past half century the Court has no…