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Thomas, J., dissenting
harsher effect on him or her than on others. See, e. g., Harris v. McRae, 448 U. S. 297, 324, n. 26 (1980) ("The equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment prohibits only purposeful discrimination, and when a facially neutral federal statute is challenged on equal protection grounds, it is incumbent upon the challenger to prove that Congress selected or reaffirmed a particular course of action at least in part because of, not merely in spite of, its adverse effects upon an identifiable group" (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)); see also Lewis v. Casey, 518 U. S., at 375 (concurring opinion) (citing cases). Our frequent pronouncements that the Fourteenth Amendment is not violated by disparate impact have spanned challenges to statutes alleged to affect disproportionately members of one race, Washington v. Davis, supra; members of one sex, Personnel Administrator v. Feeney, supra; and poor persons seeking to exercise protected rights, Harris v. McRae, supra; Maher v. Roe, 432 U. S. 464, 470-471 (1977).
The majority attempts to avoid what I regard as the irresistible force of the Davis line of cases, but I am unconvinced by the effort. The majority states that persons in cases like those cited above "sought state aid to subsidize their privately initiated action or to alleviate the consequences of differences in economic circumstances that existed apart from state action." Ante, at 125. Petitioner, in apparent contrast, "is endeavoring to defend against the State's destruction of her family bonds, and to resist the brand associated with a parental unfitness adjudication." Ibid. She, "[l]ike a defendant resisting criminal conviction, . . . seeks to be spared from the State's devastatingly adverse action." Ibid. But, also like a defendant resisting criminal conviction, petitioner is not constitutionally entitled to post-trial process. See ante, at 110, 120. She defended against the "destruction of her family bonds" in the Chancery Court hearing at which she was accorded all the process this Court has required of the States in parental termination cases. She now desires "state aid to subsidize [her] privately initi-
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