A CONCEIVABLE CONSTITUTION: HOW THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST THROWS DARTS AND MISSES THE MARK
TARA A. SMITHt
I. INTRODUCTION. ...................................... ....... 78 II. WHAT THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST INSTRUCTS .................. 80 III. IV.
WHAT THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST DOES ....................... 86 THE CASE AGAINST THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST: A CONCEIVABLE CONSTITUTION ISN'T THE CONSTITUTION...........91
A.
Conventional Critics and ImaginaryRationales....
B.
Good Faith-The Wrong Benchmark............. ..... 95 1. Motivations Are Not the ProperTest ofLegality............ 96 2. Objection: Unfair Separationof "Reasonable" from "Constitutional"..........................98 3. Moving the Goalposts .................... ..... 102 The Test Splinters Sovereignty and Subjectivizes Standards.. 103
C. V.
RATIONALES BEHIND THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST.
A. B. C. VI.
...... 91
.............. 105
Alternative Standards Would Be Overly Confining............... 106 1. Problems ........................... ....... 107 Democracy and the SeparationofPowers............... 108 1. Problems ..................................... 110 InstitutionalEfficiency........................... 113 1. Problems ............................ ...... 114
CONCLUSION.
......................................
........ 118
Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism. A specialist in moral, legal, and political philosophy, her books include JudicialReview in an Objective Legal System, Cambridge, 2015.
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