Part Two - Individual Rights · Module 11A
Equal Protection: Gender; Alienage; Age; Disability; Wealth; Sexual Orientation
Intermediate scrutiny and the classifications that never earned heightened review.
Topics
The emergence of intermediate scrutiny for sex classifications; gender classifications benefiting women. Strict scrutiny for alienage and its exceptions; undocumented noncitizens. Classifications receiving only rational basis review.
Reading list
0 of 15 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited
- Note Reed v. Reed
- Note Frontiero v. Richardson
- Opinion Craig v. Boren
- Opinion United States v. Virginia
- Note Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County
- Note Rostker v. Goldberg
- Note Califano v. Webster
- Note Sessions v. Morales-Santana
- Note Graham v. Richardson
- Note Foley v. Connelie
- Note Ambach v. Norwick
- Opinion Plyler v. Doe
- Note Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia
- Note San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
- Note United States v. Skrmetti
- Current case West Virginia v. B.P.J., No. 24-43 (U.S. June 30, 2026) (consolidated with Little v. Hecox, No. 24-38) (whether a classification by sex assigned at birth is subject to intermediate scrutiny, and whether it survives).
How to read this list
A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.