78
O'Connor, J., dissenting
State 'does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect' " (quoting Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 485 (1970))). But because we require a much tighter fit between means and ends under heightened scrutiny, the availability of sex-neutral alternatives to a sex-based classification is often highly probative of the validity of the classification. See, e. g., Wengler, 446 U. S., at 151 (invalidating a sex-based classification where a sex-neutral approach would completely serve the needs of both classes); Orr v. Orr, 440 U. S. 268, 281 (1979) (finding "no reason, therefore, to use sex as a proxy for need" where the alimony statute already provided for individualized hearings that took financial circumstances into account); Wiesenfeld, 420 U. S., at 653 (finding a gender-based distinction to be "gratuitous" where "without it, the statutory scheme would only provide benefits to those men who are in fact similarly situated to the women the statute aids").
II
The Court recites the governing substantive standard for heightened scrutiny of sex-based classifications, see ante, at 60-61, 70, but departs from the guidance of our precedents concerning such classifications in several ways. In the first sentence of its equal protection analysis, the majority glosses over the crucial matter of the burden of justification. Ante, at 60 ("For a gender-based classification to withstand equal protection scrutiny, it must be established . . ."); see also ante, at 70. In other circumstances, the Court's use of an impersonal construction might represent a mere elision of what we have stated expressly in our prior cases. Here, however, the elision presages some of the larger failings of the opinion.
For example, the majority hypothesizes about the interests served by the statute and fails adequately to inquire into the actual purposes of § 1409(a)(4). The Court also does not always explain adequately the importance
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