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 1. Whether a non-discriminatory rule imposing the usual burdens of voting is constitutional; 2. Whether a mail-voting rule is subject only to rationa…
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 Petitioners brought this case to challenge the validity of the Court's ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), that Congress may prohibit the …
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 Question not identified.
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 Question not identified.
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 This Court has repeatedly held that States may rationally restrict minors' access to sexual materials, but such restrictions must withstand strict scr…
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 Concerned about falling vaccination rates in its schools, Connecticut repealed its 62-year-old religious exemption to its school vaccination requireme…
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 1. 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 wh…
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 "The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates and renders applicable to the States Bill of Rights protections "fundamental to our scheme…
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, while permitting it to another, based solely on the relativ…
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 1. Whether false information, which a city official knows to be false, is a "rational basis" for terminating a preliminary agreement allocating city f…
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 Massachusetts reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting severe restrictions on the First Amendment right of peaceable assembly. Governor Baker exem…
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 What are the scope and limits of a District Court's discretion in denying an unopposed motion for sentence reduction under the 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 Seattle's "democracy voucher" program establishes a dedicated property levy used solely to fund individual contributions from Seattle residents to the…
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 1. Based on a "class of one" analysis, does the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution bar application …
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 I. Does Illinois's SORA scheme constitute punishment that impinges the fundamental right of unfit defendants to be free from trial or sentencing, thus…
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 1. Does the State of California create a ton Flav. Under the US. Const. 5th and 14th Amend. By not Providing a Rational Relationship Between a leatti …
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 1. Under Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137 (1970), the Dormant Commerce Clause is violated whenever the burden imposed on interstate commerce "…
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 Does Florida's failure to consider the "difference in treatment" between a plaintiff and its similarly situated comparators conflict with this Court's…
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 The State of Minnesota compels individuals who are not public employees, namely individual Medicaid providers, to accept an exclusive representative f…
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 1. Whether, and to what extent, on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a court must give deference to a plaintiff's complaint, viewing the government's…
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 The exclusion of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcemen Act (46 U.S.C. § 70503) from eligibility for safety valve violates equal protection, because there i…