An Issue Of Class

Images of impoverished Americans suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina raise the question: What is the role of class under our Constitutional system?

I would venture the following analysis:

Discrimination on the basis of economic class is not considered precisely the same kind of invidious discrimination that is protected against by the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses as is discrimination on the basis of race.

However, many affirmative action programs are found to be more acceptable if the benefits are awarded on the basis of economic deprivation rather than on the basis of race. Indeed, the argument in favor of equalization of class supports the claim of the need for affirmative action on under the premises of some arguments in favor of it; under others (i.e., those against it), it vitiates it, since affirmative action often has a disproportionate effect if measured by criteria ancillary to those by which the program putatively applies.

A more general principle to consider is that economic inequality is not considered a harmful feature of American society. That is, the Constitution does not guarantee any equality of economic results; at most, it guarantees equality of economic opportunity in programs with a significant government component. The right to private property and the freedom of association -- both guaranteed by the Constitution -- are considered paramount over any possible privately annexed economic inequality.

To the extent, therefore, that class is an economic issue, the status and classification of Americans by class under the law is not in and of itself equalized, nor is equalization of it usually the proper objective of Constitutional protection. To the extent that individuals are discriminated against in the abstract by government, or in the provision of publicly available services that Constitutionally characterizable as implicative of the Commerce Clause, other than by pure economic disparity, that is a different matter. In that case, it would be analyzed as a question of equal protection pure and simple, rather than one attributable to class.