26
Opinion of Thomas, J.
equal assessment practice was to achieve the benefits of an acquisition-value tax scheme," ante, at 16. Rather than obeying the "law of a State, generally applied," the county assessor had administered an "aberrational enforcement policy." 488 U. S., at 344, n. 4. See ante, at 15. According to the Court, therefore, the problem in Allegheny Pittsburgh was that the Webster County scheme, though otherwise rational, was irrational because it was contrary to state law. Any rational bases underlying the acquisition-value scheme were "implausible" (or "unreasonable") because they were made so by the Constitution and laws of the State of West Virginia.
That explanation, like petitioner's and respondents', is in tension with settled case law. Even if the assessor did violate West Virginia law (and that she did is open to question, see In re 1975 Tax Assessments Against Oneida Coal Co., 178 W. Va. 485, 489, 360 S. E. 2d 560, 564 (1987)), she would not have violated the Equal Protection Clause. A violation of state law does not by itself constitute a violation of the Federal Constitution. We made that clear in Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U. S. 1 (1944), for instance, where a candidate for state office complained that members of the local canvassing board had refused to certify his name as a nominee to the Secretary of State, thus violating an Illinois statute. Because the plaintiff had not alleged, say, that the defendants had meant to discriminate against him on racial grounds, but merely that they had failed to comply with a statute, we rejected the argument that the defendants had thereby violated the Equal Protection Clause.
"[N]ot every denial of a right conferred by state law involves a denial of the equal protection of the laws, even though the denial of the right to one person may operate to confer it on another. . . . [W]here the official action purports to be in conformity to the statutory classification, an erroneous or mistaken performance of the statutory duty, although a violation of the statute, is not
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