Mr. Herbert Spencer and the Bachelor Stockbroker: Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15
![handle is hein.journals/arz15 and id is 461 raw text is: MR. HERBERT SPENCER AND THE BACHELOR
STOCKBROKER: KRAMER v. UNION FREE
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 15
Rex E. Lee*
Out of the great variety of situations in which governmental en-
tities deal with individuals, there are few, if any, in which it is not pos-
sible for someone to contend that the government has treated him un-
equally vis-4-vis someone else. The prime objective in constitutional
litigation involving the equal protection clause, therefore, has been the
delineation of standards for applying the fourteenth amendment's
highly generalized proscription against unequal governmental treat-
ment. The Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Kramer v. Union Free
School District No. 152 represents a significant development in the
history of equal protection precedents, for it expressly articulated a
more exacting equal protection standard as applied to voting rights.
The general rule in equal protection cases is that a governmental
classification is invalid only if it rest[s] on grounds wholly irrelevant
to achievement of the regulation's objectives' or is palpably arbi-
trary.4 The degree of latitude enjoyed by legislative bodies under this
traditional test is similar to that allowed by the substantive due process
approach which has prevailed, theoretically at least, since Nebbia v.
New York.' Thus, under both the equal protection and substantive
due process tests, the central inquiry concentrates on reasonableness.
The interest balancing and value trade-offs, necessary in so many im-
* Dean, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, B.A. 1960,
Brigham Young University; J.D. 1963, University of Chicago.
1. The Supreme Court observed in Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 208 (1927), that
the equal protection clause is the usual last resort of constitutional arguments.
2. 395 U.S. 621 (1969).
3. Kotch v. Pilot Comm'rs, 330 U.S. 552, 556 (1947); see McGowan v. Mary-
land, 366 U.S. 420, 425 (1961).
4. Allied Stores of Ohio, Inc. v. Bowers, 358 U.S. 552, 527 (1959).
5. 291 U.S. 502 (1934).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arz15&div=28&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Mr. Herbert Spencer and the Bachelor Stockbroker: Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15
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