Equal Protection of the Laws

Equal Protection of the Laws

   This constitutional guarantee of the equal protection of the laws means that - "no person or class of person shall be denied the same protection of the laws which is enjoyed by other persons or other classes of persons under like circumstances in their lives, in their liberty, in their property, and the pursuit of happiness. It requires that all persons shall be treated alike, under like circumstances and conditions, both in the privileges conferred and in the liabilities imposed."

   The equal protection clause is designed to protect,and at the same time, to prevent any person, whether citizen or alien, from being singled out as a special subject of discriminatory legislation. Also protected are private corporations but only in so far as their properties are concerned. The protection guaranteed, however, extends to civil rights only. It does not extend to rights which are political or which arise from the form of government and its mode of administration.

   While the equal protection clause protects aliens, certain important areas of investments may be withheld from such aliens in the national interest although it is settled rule that arbitrarily forbidding aliens to engage in ordinary kinds of business to earn their living are violative of the equal protection of the law.

   The Supreme Court, in a case, declared that the equal protection  clause applies only to persons or things identically situated and does not bar a reasonable classification of the subjects of litigation, and a classification is reasonable where:

   a.) it is based on substantial distinctions which make reasonable differences;
   b.) these are germane to the purpose of the law;
   c.) the classification applies not only to present conditions but also to future conditions which are substantially identical to those of the present;
   d.) the classification applies only to those who belong to the same class.

   Where a particular law which, although valid on its face, because it is fair and reasonable, however, permits unjust discrimination in its administration, between persons otherwise in similar circumstances, then it can be said that such a law denies the equal protection of the law. This is so when it confers upon the administrative authorities arbitrary power to administer its provisions.

   As declared by the US Supreme Court, in the case of Yick Wo vs Hopkins (118 US 356):

      " Though the law maybe fair on its face, and impartial in appearance, yet, if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and unequal hand so as practically to make unjust and illegal discrimination between persons in similar circumstances, material to their rights, the denial of equal justice is still within the prohibition of the Constitution." 

   This prohibition embodied in the equal protection clause is designed as a restriction on all organs of the government and on the subordinate instrumentalities and subdivisions thereof, and on the inherent powers of government relating to its police power, power of taxation, and eminent domain. 

   The equal protection clause is a specific constitutional guarantee of the Equality of Person.  The equality it guarantees is "legal equality" or, as it is usually put,  the equality of all persons before the law. Under it, each individual is dealt with as an equal person in the law, which does not treat the person differently because of who he is or what he is or what he possesses. The Goddess of Justice is portrayed with a blindfold, not because she must be hindered in seeing where the right lies, but that she may not discriminate against suitors before her, disposing instead an evenhanded justice to all."