Slaughterhouse Cases - Equal Protection

Equal protection is the constitutional right of all people and all classes of people in the United States to share in the rights and privileges enjoyed by other people and classes of people in similar conditions and circumstances. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution serves as the foundation of the equal protection guarantee and requires that the states treat individuals and groups or classes of individuals the same given the circumstances.

Equal protection cases do not question the validity of laws in most cases, but rather the application of laws; for example, when laws are applied to only certain members of the population. While no hard and fast rules exist for determining the constitutionality of state classifications, the Supreme Court relies on different tests for making this determination, such as whether a classification serves a legitimate purpose or whether it is being used to discriminate on the basis of a classification such as being a Native American or an immigrant. Landmark equal protection cases and laws of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have addressed the rights of various ethnic groups, homosexuals, the disabled, and the poor.