In U.S. constitutional law, when a court finds that a law infringes a fundamental constitutional right, it may apply the strict scrutiny standard to nevertheless hold the law or policy constitutionally valid if the government can demonstrate in court that the law or regulation is necessary to achieve a “compelling ...
What is strict scrutiny First Amendment?
To satisfy strict scrutiny, the government must show that the law meets a compelling government interest and that the regulation is being implemented using the least restrictive means . ... Therefore, the government cannot place restrictions on more speech than is necessary to advance its compelling interest.
What are the 3 levels of scrutiny?
Then the choice between the three levels of scrutiny, strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, or rational basis scrutiny , is the doctrinal way of capturing the individual interest and perniciousness of the kind of government action.
What are the two tests of strict scrutiny?
Overview. The rational basis test is a judicial review test. A judicial review test is what courts use to determine the constitutionality of a statute or ordinance.
Where is strict scrutiny in the Constitution?
The strict scrutiny standard of judicial review is based on the EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE of the Fourteenth Amendment . Federal courts use strict scrutiny to determine whether certain types of government policies are constitutional.
What are the five parts of strict scrutiny?
Equal Protection
For a court to apply strict scrutiny, the legislature must either have passed a law that infringes upon a fundamental right or involves a suspect classification. Suspect classifications include race, national origin, religion, and alienage .
What is the rational basis standard for review?
In U.S. constitutional law, rational basis review is the normal standard of review that courts apply when considering constitutional questions , including due process or equal protection questions under the Fifth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment.
What level of scrutiny is gender?
Since then, courts have found that gender is a protected class, and any statute which discriminates on the basis of gender must undergo the intermediate scrutiny test .
What are the types of scrutiny?
- Strict scrutiny.
- Intermediate scrutiny.
- Rational basis review.
What is an example of strict scrutiny?
During the civil rights era and through today, the Supreme Court has applied Strict Scrutiny to government actions that classify people based on race. For example, in Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court applied Strict Scrutiny to strike down Virginia's law banning interracial marriage .
Where did strict scrutiny come from?
The notion of “levels of judicial scrutiny”, including strict scrutiny, was introduced in Footnote 4 of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938) , one of a series of decisions testing the constitutionality of New Deal legislation.
What is a overbroad law?
Overbreadth is shorthand for the overbreadth doctrine, which provides that a regulation of speech can sweep too broadly and prohibit protected as well as non-protected speech . A regulation of speech is unconstitutionally overbroad if it regulates a substantial amount of constitutionally protected expression.
Does free speech get strict scrutiny?
A government regulation that implicates political or ideological speech generally receives strict scrutiny in the courts, whereby the government must show that the law is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest.
What is an example of rational basis scrutiny?
For example, laws that affect persons on account of their race , a “suspect class,” are subject to strict scrutiny and must be justified by the government with a compelling reason.
What are the three levels of scrutiny for laws that discriminate?
After proving this, the court will typically scrutinize the governmental action in one of several three ways to determine whether the governmental body's action is permissible: these three methods are referred to as strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, and rational basis scrutiny .
What does scrutiny mean in law?
Legal Definition of scrutiny
: searching study or inquiry specifically : judicial investigation of the constitutionality of a statutory classification of persons under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution — see also intermediate sense 2, strict scrutiny — compare rational basis test.
