Cite as: 533 U. S. 53 (2001)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229 (1976), whereas we apply heightened scrutiny to laws that facially classify individuals on the basis of their sex. See, e. g., United States v. Virginia, 518 U. S. 515 (1996); see also J. E. B., supra, at 152 (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment) ("[O]ur case law does reveal a strong presumption that gender classifications are invalid"); Parham v. Hughes, 441 U. S. 347, 351 (1979) (plurality opinion) ("Not all legislation, however, is entitled to the same presumption of validity. . . . [T]he presumption of statutory validity may also be undermined when a State has enacted legislation creating classes based upon certain other immutable human attributes" (citing, inter alia, Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71 (1971))).
If rational basis scrutiny were appropriate in this case, then the claim that "[t]he Constitution . . . does not require that Congress elect one particular mechanism from among many possible methods of establishing paternity," ante, at 63, would have much greater force. So too would the claim that "[t]he requirement of § 1409(a)(4) represents a reasonable conclusion . . . ." Ibid. But fidelity to the Constitution's pledge of equal protection demands more when a facially sex-based classification is at issue. This is not because we sit in judgment of the wisdom of laws in one instance but not the other, cf. Beach Communications, 508 U. S., at 313, but rather because of the potential for "injury . . . to personal dignity," J. E. B., supra, at 153 (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment), that inheres in or accompanies so many sex-based classifications.
B
The Court states that "[t]he second important governmental interest furthered in a substantial manner by § 1409(a)(4) is the determination to ensure that the child and the citizen parent have some demonstrated opportunity or potential to develop not just a relationship that is recognized, as a formal matter, by the law, but one that consists of the real,
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