Also known as: suspect criterion · suspect classification
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A classification based on immutable characteristics historically subjected to discrimination and bearing no relation to ability to perform or contribute to society. Such classifications trigger strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause because they reflect prejudice rather than legitimate governmental distinctions.
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The state enacts a statute requiring all police officers to retire at age fifty. Steven Silva, a fifty-one-year-old officer still meeting every physical-fitness benchmark, challenges the statute. Because age is not a suspect classification, the court applies rational-basis review and upholds the law as rationally related to maintaining a physically capable force.
A school district assigns students to schools solely on the basis of race to achieve integration. Maria Lopez, a student reassigned away from her neighborhood school because of her race, sues. The court applies strict scrutiny because race is a suspect classification and invalidates the plan absent a compelling interest narrowly tailored to the classification.
A classification is suspect when the group has suffered a history of discrimination, the characteristic bears no relation to ability to perform or contribute to society, the trait is obvious or immutable, and the group is a minority or politically powerless. Race and national origin satisfy these factors and therefore receive strict scrutiny.
Age is not a suspect classification because it does not meet the four-factor test. Older individuals have not been subjected to the same pervasive historical discrimination as racial minorities, age correlates with physical capacity in some jobs, and the elderly are not politically powerless. Therefore age-based rules need only be rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose.
When government action rests on a suspect classification such as race, courts apply strict scrutiny and require the government to prove the classification is narrowly tailored to a compelling interest. Absent a suspect classification or fundamental right, rational-basis review applies and the law is presumed valid if rationally related to any legitimate purpose.
Neither wealth nor education qualifies as a suspect classification. Disparities in school funding based on local property taxes therefore receive only rational-basis review and are constitutional if rationally related to legitimate interests such as local control of schools.