374
Thomas, J., concurring
it has a disparate impact on the poor in San Antonio Independent School Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 1 (1973). In Rodriguez, the respondents challenged Texas' traditional system of financing public education under the Equal Protection Clause on the ground that, under that system, "some poorer people receive less expensive educations than other more affluent people." Id., at 19. In rejecting the claim that this sort of disparate impact amounted to unconstitutional discrimination, we declined the respondents' invitation to extend the rationale of Griffin, Douglas, and similar cases. We explained that, under those cases, unless a group claiming discrimination on the basis of poverty can show that it is "completely unable to pay for some desired benefit, and as a consequence, . . . sustained an absolute deprivation of a meaningful opportunity to enjoy that benefit," 411 U. S., at 20 (emphasis added), strict scrutiny of a classification based on wealth does not apply. Because the respondents in Rodriguez had not shown that "the children in districts having relatively low assessable property values are receiving no public education," but rather claimed only that "they are receiving a poorer quality education than that available to children in districts having more assessable wealth," id., at 23 (emphasis added), we held that the "Texas system does not operate to the peculiar disadvantage of any suspect class," id., at 28. After Rodriguez, it was clear that "wealth discrimination alone [does not] provid[e] an adequate basis for invoking strict scrutiny," id., at 29, and that, "at least where wealth is involved, the Equal Protection Clause does not require absolute equality or precisely equal advantages," id., at 24. See also Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U. S. 450, 458 (1988); Harris v. McRae, 448 U. S. 297, 322-323 (1980); Maher v. Roe, 432 U. S. 464, 470-471 (1977).4
4 The absence of a prison law library or other state-provided legal assistance can hardly be said to deprive inmates absolutely of an opportunity to bring their claims to the attention of a federal court. Clarence Earl Gideon, perhaps the most celebrated pro se prisoner litigant of all time, was able to obtain review by this Court even though he had no legal training
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