Cite as: 538 U. S. 721 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
In sum, the States' record of unconstitutional participation in, and fostering of, gender-based discrimination in the administration of leave benefits is weighty enough to justify the enactment of prophylactic § 5 legislation.11
We reached the opposite conclusion in Garrett and Kimel. In those cases, the § 5 legislation under review responded to a purported tendency of state officials to make age- or disability-based distinctions. Under our equal protection case law, discrimination on the basis of such characteristics is not judged under a heightened review standard, and passes muster if there is "a rational basis for doing so at a class-based level, even if it 'is probably not true' that those reasons are valid in the majority of cases." Kimel, 528 U. S., at 86 (quoting Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U. S. 452, 473 (1991)). See also Garrett, 531 U. S., at 367 ("States are not required by the Fourteenth Amendment to make special accommodations for the disabled, so long as their actions toward such individuals are rational"). Thus, in order to impugn the constitutionality of state discrimination against the disabled or the elderly, Congress must identify, not just the existence of ageor disability-based state decisions, but a "widespread pattern" of irrational reliance on such criteria. Kimel, supra, at 90. We found no such showing with respect to the ADEA and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Kimel, supra, at 89; Garrett, supra, at 368.
supra, at 733-734 and this page, Congress reasonably concluded that state leave laws and practices should be brought within the Act.
11 Given the extent and specificity of the above record of unconstitutional state conduct, it is difficult to understand the dissent's accusation that we rely on "a simple recitation of a general history of employment discrimination against women." Post, at 746. As we stated above, our holding rests on congressional findings that, at the time the FMLA was enacted, States "rel[ied] on invalid gender stereotypes in the employment context, specifically in the administration of leave benefits." Supra, at 730 (emphasis added). See supra, at 730-732.
735
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