Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Wednesday Nov 11 Zoom Discussion Topic

 Take the gender-based social security formula upheld in Califano and make it race-based instead.

In other words, suppose Congress enacted a law that permits African-American wage earners to exclude from the computation of their average monthly wages three more earning years than members of other racial groups. And that this resulted in a higher level of social security benefits for African-American recipients. 

Also assume that the purpose of this formula was to compensate for the economic inequality for African-Americans resulting from a history of societal discrimination.

In Califano the Court upheld the gender-based formula under intermediate scrutiny. How would the race-based formula be analyzed? Is it constitutional?



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