The rational-basis test, which is the most lenient test in 14th Amendment Equal Protection jurisprudence, doesn't require much. It merely asks that the legislature have had some evidence (any evidence) that the distinction it was making would have some relationship to the advancement of public health, welfare or morals.
It's difficult to make that showing with a plebescite, of course, because of the lack of commitee hearings etc. But one of the astonishing things about anti-gay legislation, going back to Colorado's Amendment Two, is that the lawmakers don't even bother to try to show the rational basis.
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yati
We are Legal Monkeys Too
Date: 2010-08-04 11:04 pm (UTC)It's difficult to make that showing with a plebescite, of course, because of the lack of commitee hearings etc. But one of the astonishing things about anti-gay legislation, going back to Colorado's Amendment Two, is that the lawmakers don't even bother to try to show the rational basis.