Opinion ID: 838950
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Craig v. Boren

Text: The dissent prefers to compare dower to the law found unconstitutional in Craig. But, for several significant reasons, I conclude that Craig does not require us to hold that Michigan's dower scheme violates the Equal Protection Clause. Indeed, as I discuss further in part III(C), the dissent's application of Craig would effectively render all gender classifications unconstitutional. First, Craig is a problematic decision because although a majority of justices concurred in the result, only a plurality concurred in Justice Brennan's lead opinion. Justices Powell and Stevens each concurred, but explicitly condemned Justice Brennan's endorsement of a middletier analysis. Craig, 429 U.S. at 210, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Powell, J., concurring); id. at 212, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Stevens, J., concurring). Justice Stewart similarly concurred in the result because he concluded the classification amount[ed] to total irrationality ... without even a colorably valid justification or explanation, and therefore the law constituted invidious discrimination. Id. at 215, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Stewart, J., concurring in result). Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist dissented, rejecting the propriety of a middle-tier analysis, id. at 217, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Burger, C.J., dissenting); id. at 217-218, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting), and harshly criticizing Justice Brennan's attempts to justify his result by subjecting the state to the judicial equivalent of a doctoral examination in statistics, id. at 221-226, 97 S.Ct. 451 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). Second, the goals and means of the statute at issue in Craig bore no resemblance to those of Michigan's dower scheme. The Oklahoma law permitting sales of 3.2 percent alcoholic beverages to women aged 18 years or older and men aged 21 years or older was ostensibly aimed at traffic safety. [20] Craig, 429 U.S. at 199, 97 S.Ct. 451. Thus, the law was in no way aimed at remedying past discrimination between the sexes. Indeed, the Craig Court distinguished Kahn and Schlesinger v. Ballard, 419 U.S. 498, 95 S.Ct. 572, 42 L.Ed.2d 610 (1975), for that very reason. Craig noted that Kahn and Schlesinger uph[eld] the use of gender-based classifications ... [based] upon the Court's perception of the laudatory purposes of those laws as remedying disadvantageous conditions suffered by women in economic and military life. Craig, 429 U.S. at 198 n. 6, 97 S.Ct. 451. The Court then concluded: Needless to say, in this case Oklahoma does not suggest that the age-sex differential was enacted to ensure the availability of 3.2% beer for women as compensation for previous deprivations. Id. [21] The law at issue in Craig also did not recognize a historic property right of women. Rather, for reasons unclear to the Court, the law precluded sales of certain alcohol to men under 21, when it could easily have precluded sales to all persons under 21. Third, the statistics in Craig revealed a significantly less direct relationship between drunk driving and men aged 18 to 20 than the statistics here correlating widows and economic disadvantage as compared to widowers. The dissent relies on dicta and generalized statements in Craig regarding the dubious[ness] of proving broad sociological propositions by statistics, and the less tenuous correlations in other cases that were nonetheless rejected as insufficient. Post at 248, quoting Craig, 429 U.S. at 204, 97 S.Ct. 451. Indeed, I agree that the use of statistics inevitably is in tension with the normative philosophy that underlies the Equal Protection Clause. Post at 248-49, quoting Craig, 429 U.S. at 204, 97 S.Ct. 451. But, as Craig illustrates, unless we are to apply strict scrutiny or strike down all gender-based classifications, empirical data may be necessary to gauge whether there is a substantial relationship between such a classification and an important governmental objective. See part III(C) of this statement. The actual statistics underlying the Court's holding in Craig are not comparable to the data relevant here. The Craig plurality did not find the statistics insufficient merely because 2 percent of men as compared to 0.18 percent of women were arrested for drunk driving. Rather, it concluded that these data represented the most focused and relevant of the statistics offered by the state, yet they did not justify the classification because, overall, the statistics exhibit[ed] a variety of other shortcomings that seriously impugn[ed] their value to equal protection analysis. Craig, 429 U.S. at 201-202, 97 S.Ct. 451. Most significantly, the statistical surveys did not justify the salient features of Oklahoma's gender-based traffic-safety law because [n]one purport[ed] to measure the use and dangerousness of 3.2% beer as opposed to alcohol generally; the Court found this detail to be of particular importance since, in light of its low alcohol level, Oklahoma apparently consider[ed] the 3.2% beverage to be `nonintoxicating.' Id. at 202-203, 97 S.Ct. 451. The plurality added: Moreover, many of the studies, while graphically documenting the unfortunate increase in driving while under the influence of alcohol, ma[de] no effort to relate their findings to age-sex differentials as involved here. Id. at 203, 97 S.Ct. 451. Indeed, Justice Brennan noted that roadside surveys had established that `the under-20 age group generally showed a lower involvement with alcohol in terms of having drunk within the past two hours or having a significant BAC (blood alcohol content).' Id. at 203 n. 16, 97 S.Ct. 451 (citation omitted). Thus, the surveys provide[d] little support for a gender line among teenagers and actually r[an] counter to the imposition of drinking restrictions based upon age. Id. In contrast, as explained above, although gender-based dower is somewhat over-and underinclusive of its goals, there is a clear correlation between widows and economic need, as well as past economic discrimination. The correlation rests on more than the mere loose-fitting generalities concerning the drinking tendencies of aggregate groups presented in Craig. Craig, 429 U.S. at 209, 97 S.Ct. 451. Further, the law at issue in Craig discriminated against men to serve the general goal of traffic safety, which, is unrelated to gender in substance. But here, dower's gender classification is expressly aimed at remedying gender disparities.