City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center case brief

City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center (1985) Rational Basis for Disability

Facts: CLC wanted to establish a group home for the mentally disabled. City had zoning regs that req’d special permits for building hospitals for the “feeble-minded.” City denied the permit.

PP: AC overturned City’s action, stated that the mentally disabled were considered a “quasi-suspect class, applied intermediate scrutiny, and said that the zoning regulation was invalid on its face and by application.

Issue: Apply heightened scrutiny of not?

Holding: SC held that the AC was wrong in holding mental retardation to be a quasi-suspect classification.

• The city does not require permits for other buildings, apartment houses, etc. (Most types of buildings do not require a special permit in this area.) The court said that the difference in the mentally retarded and these other groups who aren’t required to obtain a special permit are “largely irrelevant” unless the home “would threaten legitimate interests of the city in a way that other permitted uses such as boarding houses and hospitals would not.”

SC held that there was no rational basis for believing the home would pose any special threat to legitimate interests.

Stevens, Burger (concurring): Stevens says the analysis should not be a tiered analysis, but rather should look at the issue on a continuum.

Marshall, Brennan, Blackmun (concurring in judgment in part, dissenting in part): Marshall uses “sliding scale” approach, where the “substantiality of the state interests to be served” and “the reasonableness of the means by which the State has sought to advance its interests” are key factors. Says statute should have been invalidated on its face.