134
Thomas, J., dissenting
tions or the reasonableness of the general requirement that the trial transcript, if used in its preparation, be paid for by the appealing party." Id., at 35. But, because requiring each would-be appellant to bear the costs of appeal hit the poor harder, the majority divined "an invidious classification between the 'rich' and the 'poor.' " Ibid. Disputing this early manifestation of the "disparate impact" theory of equal protection, Justice Harlan argued:
"[N]o economic burden attendant upon the exercise of a privilege bears equally upon all, and in other circumstances the resulting differentiation is not treated as an invidious classification by the State, even though discrimination against 'indigents' by name would be unconstitutional." Ibid.
Justice Harlan offered the example of a state university that conditions an education on the payment of tuition. If charging tuition did not create a discriminatory classification, then, Justice Harlan wondered, how did any other reasonable exaction by a State for a service it provides? "The resulting classification would be invidious in all cases, and an invidious classification offends equal protection regardless of the seriousness of the consequences." Ibid. (emphasis deleted). The issue in Griffin was not whether Illinois had made a reasonable classification, but whether the State acted reasonably in failing to remove disabilities that existed wholly independently of state action. To Justice Harlan this was not an inquiry typically posed under the Equal Protection Clause.
In Douglas v. California, 372 U. S. 353 (1963), Justice Harlan again confronted what Justice Clark termed the Court's "fetish for indigency," id., at 359 (dissenting opinion). Regarding a law limiting the appointment of appellate counsel for indigents, Justice Harlan pointed out that "[l]aws such as these do not deny equal protection to the less fortunate for one essential reason: the Equal Protection Clause does not impose on the States 'an affirmative duty to lift the handi-
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