320
Opinion of the Court
See, e. g., Beach Communications, supra, at 314-315; Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U. S. 450, 462 (1988); Hodel v. Indiana, 452 U. S. 314, 331-332 (1981); Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U. S. 307, 314 (1976) (per curiam). Such a classification cannot run afoul of the Equal Protection Clause if there is a rational relationship between the disparity of treatment and some legitimate governmental purpose. See, e. g., Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U. S. 1, 11 (1992); Dukes, supra, at 303. Further, a legislature that creates these categories need not "actually articulate at any time the purpose or rationale supporting its classification." Nordlinger, supra, at 15. See also, e. g., United States Railroad Retirement Bd. v. Fritz, 449 U. S. 166, 179 (1980); Allied Stores of Ohio, Inc. v. Bowers, 358 U. S. 522, 528 (1959). Instead, a classification "must be upheld against equal protection challenge if there is any reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the classification." Beach Communications, supra, at 313. See also, e. g., Nordlinger, supra, at 11; Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U. S. 478, 485 (1990); Fritz, supra, at 174-179; Vance v. Bradley, 440 U. S. 93, 111 (1979); Dandridge v. Williams, supra, at 484-485.
A State, moreover, has no obligation to produce evidence to sustain the rationality of a statutory classification. "[A] legislative choice is not subject to courtroom factfinding and may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or empirical data." Beach Communications, supra, at 315. See also, e. g., Vance v. Bradley, supra, at 111; Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp., 426 U. S. 794, 812 (1976); Locomotive Firemen v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 393 U. S. 129, 139 (1968). A statute is presumed constitutional, see supra, at 319, and "[t]he burden is on the one attacking the legislative arrangement to negative every conceivable basis which might support it," Lehnhausen v. Lake Shore Auto Parts Co., 410 U. S. 356, 364 (1973) (internal quotation marks omitted), whether or not the basis has a foundation in the
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