rational-basis

24 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25-962 Republican National Committee, et al. v. Bette Eakin, et al. Third Circuit 2026-02-13 Pending anderson-burdick constitutional-law election-integrity mail-voting rational-basis voter-fraud Whether a non-discriminatory mail-voting rule imposing usual voting burdens is constitutional under rational-basis review
25-518 Canna Provisions, Inc., et al., v. Pamela J. Bondi, Attorney General First Circuit 2025-10-28 Denied Amici (3)Response Waived commerce-clause congressional-power economic-activity interstate-commerce marijuana-regulation rational-basis Should the Court overrule Raich's holding that Congress can regulate purely local economic activity if there is any 'rational basis' that such activit…
25A423 Heather Swanson, et al. v. Michael T. Hilgers, Attorney General of Nebraska, et al. Eighth Circuit 2025-10-14 Presumed Complete equal-protection fourteenth-amendment home-birth medical-regulation midwifery rational-basis Whether a state law completely prohibiting certified nurse midwives from attending home births violates the Fourteenth Amendment's rational basis revi…
25A330 John F. Carbin v. Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters, et al. First Circuit 2025-09-23 Presumed Complete due-process fourteenth-amendment fundamental-rights licensing-restrictions property-rights rational-basis Whether the Fourteenth Amendment protects a fundamental right to perform one's own home repairs and plumbing work without state licensing restrictions…
23-1122 Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas Fifth Circuit 2024-04-16 Judgment Issued Amici (45)Relisted (2) adults-access constitutional-rights content-based-restriction first-amendment free-speech protected-speech rational-basis rational-basis-review strict-scrutiny Whether the court of appeals erred as a matter of law in applying rational-basis review to a law burdening adults' access to protected speech, instead…
23-7172 JB Nicholas v. Judy A. Camuso, Commissioner, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife First Circuit 2024-04-10 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP burford-abstention civil-rights due-process evidence first-amendment government-restrictions judicial-review occupational-liberty rational-basis Should the Court require Government-imposed restrictions on the 809-year-old personal right to occupational liberty, long-recognized by this Court as …
23-643 We The Patriots USA, Inc., et al. v. Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Development, et al. Second Circuit 2023-12-14 Denied Amici (2)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) civil-rights free-exercise generally-applicable legacy-exemptions neutral-and-generally-applicable neutral-law rational-basis religious-exemption smith-precedent smith-v-employment-division vaccination-mandate Whether a mandate that does not exempt religious conduct is neutral and generally applicable if it exempts secular conduct that similarly frustrates t…
22-1208 Ursula Newell-Davis, et al. v. Courtney N. Phillips, in Her Official Capacity as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, et al. Fifth Circuit 2023-06-14 Denied Amici (5)Response Waived due-process equal-protection fourteenth-amendment occupation-rights privileges-or-immunities rational-basis regulatory-burden right-to-occupation slaughter-house-cases Whether the state may deny equal protection of the laws and exclude people from a trade for the sole purpose of easing its regulatory burden, or wheth…
22-940 Sheldon Schwartz v. Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine Massachusetts 2023-03-28 Denied Response Waived administrative-law bill-of-rights due-process liberty-right medical-license medical-licensing professional-practice professional-regulation rational-basis state-board Is the taking of a physician's medical license a violation of the Bill of Rights to our Nation's scheme of ordered liberty?
22-545 Sage Lewis, et al. v. Akron Board of Zoning Appeals Ohio 2022-12-14 Denied Response Waived civil-rights constitutional-claim due-process emergency-shelter liberty-interest property-rights rational-basis rational-basis-test zoning zoning-code When a person wants to exercise the deeply and objectively rooted right to use liberty and property for the non-economic purpose of saving lives, does…
21-937 Christopher Lee Holloway v. Minnesota Eighth Circuit 2021-12-23 Denied Response Waived based solely on the relative age of the actor violates the constitutional right to equal-protec while permitting it to another affirmative-defense age-discrimination constitutional-rights criminal-procedure due-process equal-protection federal-law legislative-intent rational-basis Whether the denial of an affirmative defense to one class of offenders in a criminal case
21-148 California Restaurant Association, Inc. v. Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County, et al. California 2021-08-03 Denied Amici (2) constitutional-law due-process government-action jacobson-v-massachusetts property-rights public-health rational-basis takings takings-clause Is due process satisfied, consistent with the decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), where a public health department acts based o…
20-1576 145 Fisk, LLC v. F. William Nicklas Seventh Circuit 2021-05-13 Denied Response Waived civil-rights due-process equal-protection first-amendment first-amendment-retaliation judicial-review preliminary-agreement rational-basis retaliation standing Whether false information is a rational basis for terminating a development agreement
20-1569 Dawn Desrosiers, et al. v. Charlie Baker, Governor of Massachusetts Massachusetts 2021-05-12 Denied Amici (2)Response Waived content-neutral covid-restrictions due-process first-amendment peaceable-assembly rational-basis time-place-manner Can broad-based restrictions on peaceable assemblies held on private property be upheld as valid time-place-manner regulations based on a State's inte…
20-466 Larry Williams v. United States Sixth Circuit 2020-10-09 Denied Response Waived booker-decision departure-or-variance discretionary-guidelines First-Step-Act judicial-discretion rational-basis sentence-reduction sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reduction U.S.-v.-Booker Scope-and-limits-of-district-court-discretion-in-denying-unopposed-motion-for-sentence-reduction-under-First-Step-Act
19-608 Mark Elster, et al. v. City of Seattle, Washington Washington 2019-11-12 Denied Amici (3)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) campaign-finance civil-rights compelled-subsidy constitutional-review first-amendment free-speech property-levy rational-basis speech-funding standing Whether a levy that forces property owners to fund other individuals' campaign donations implicates the First Amendment's compelled-subsidy doctrine
19-424 Joel Howard James v. Michigan Michigan 2019-09-30 Denied Response Waived class-of-one criminal-investigation due-process equal-protection equal-protection-clause fourteenth-amendment nonresident-tolling nonresident-tolling-provision privileges-and-immunities Privileges-and-Immunities-Clause Rational-Basis statute-of-limitations Whether the nonresident tolling provision of MCL 767.24(10) violates the Equal Protection Clause and Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteent…
18-9759 Juan Rodriguez v. Illinois Illinois 2019-06-21 Denied Response WaivedIFP cognitive-defects due-process fundamental-rights kennedy-v-mendoza-martinez punishment-analysis rational-basis rational-basis-review sex-offender-registration strict-scrutiny substantive-due-process unfit-defendant Does Illinois's SORA scheme constitute punishment that impinges the fundamental right of unfit defendants to be free from trial or sentencing, thus fa…
18-9290 Albert J. Hamilton v. Jurban, RN, et al. Ninth Circuit 2019-05-15 Denied IFP amendment-interpretation civil-rights constitutional-conflict criminal-law disability due-process equal-protection legal-classification rational-basis sentencing standing state-interest takings Does the State of California create a conflict under the U.S. Const. 5th and 14th Amend. by not providing a rational relationship between a legitimate…
18-1145 Minerva Dairy, Inc., et al. v. Brad Pfaff, in His Official Capacity as Secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, et al. Seventh Circuit 2019-03-05 Denied Amici (3) burdens-on-interstate-commerce circuit-split civil-rights commerce-clause constitutional-law discrimination disparate-impact dormant-commerce-clause due-process economic-liberty interstate-commerce local-benefits pike-v-bruce-church rational-basis rational-basis-test state-regulation substantive-due-process Dormant Commerce Clause challenge to Wisconsin butter grading law
18-1119 The Richman Group of Florida, Inc. v. Pinellas County, Florida Florida 2019-02-27 Denied Response Waived 14th-amendment class-of-one comparative-analysis difference-in-treatment due-process equal-protection florida fourteenth-amendment legislative-decision property-rights rational-basis selective-enforcement similarly-situated Unequal treatment of similarly situated persons under Florida's equal protection analysis
18-766 Teresa Bierman, et al. v. Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, et al. Eighth Circuit 2018-12-17 Denied Amici (8)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) exclusive-representation expressive-association first-amendment government-speech heightened-scrutiny individual-rights mandatory-expressive-association mandatory-representation public-employees rational-basis Can the government designate an exclusive representative to speak for individuals for any rational basis, or is this mandatory expressive association …
18-535 Residents Against Flooding, et al. v. Reinvestment Zone Number Seventeen, City of Houston, Texas, et al. Fifth Circuit 2018-10-23 Denied Response Waived circuit-split civil-procedure land-use land-use-decisions motion-to-dismiss property-rights rational-basis rule-12b6 standard-of-review substantive-due-process takings Whether, and to what extent, a court must give deference to a plaintiff's complaint and view the government's rational basis as a rebuttal presumption…
18-5221 Aquilino Guizamano-Cortes v. United States Eleventh Circuit 2018-07-12 Denied Response WaivedIFP criminal-law drug-offense due-process equal-protection maritime-drug-law maritime-drug-law-enforcement-act maritime-law rational-basis safety-valve sentencing sentencing-relief statutory-interpretation territorial-jurisdiction Whether the exclusion of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (46 U.S.C. § 70503) from eligibility for safety valve relief violates equal protection,…