But if it does establish such programs for its employees, it would have to uniformly cover all fiscal court employees alike. . . . . . . For purposes of personnel policies and fringe benefits, all county employees directly under the fiscal court must be considered in the same class. Discrimination cannot be made against persons in the same class. Also see the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. That amendment, inter alia, prohibits the denial of equal protection to any person.
Exact equality is no prerequisite of equal protection of the laws under that amendment.
Rather, the Fourteenth Amendment only forbids classifications involving invidious discrimination, which is defined as a classification which is arbitrary, irrational, and not reasonably related to a legitimate purpose. . . . It is equally well established that the classification must be based upon some reasonable and substantial difference in kind, situation or circumstance which bears a proper relation to the purpose of the Statute. . . . We perceive no rational basis that can justify the favorable treatment that HB 527 would give to clerks, sheriffs, and their employees. The bill does nothing more than to reward employees who are fortunate enough to work for an official who has some excess public money in her hands at the close of the fiscal year. The sort of discrimination that the bill perpetuates is invidious, arbitrary, and irrational.