Opinion ID: 118323
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Fourteenth Amendment provides, in relevant part:

Text: Section 1. . . . No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. . . . . . Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. As we recognized most recently in City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U. S. 507, 517 (1997), § 5 is an affirmative grant of power to Congress. It is for Congress in the first instance to `determin[e] whether and what legislation is needed to secure the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment,' and its conclusions are entitled to much deference. Id., at 536 (quoting Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U. S. 641, 651 (1966)). Congress' § 5 power is not confined to the enactment of legislation that merely parrots the precise wording of the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather, Congress' power to enforce the Amendment includes the authority both to remedy and to deter violation of rights guaranteed thereunder by prohibiting a somewhat broader swath of conduct, including that which is not itself forbidden by the Amendment's text. 521 U. S., at 518. Nevertheless, we have also recognized that the same language that serves as the basis for the affirmative grant of congressional power also serves to limit that power. For example, Congress cannot decree the substance of the Fourteenth Amendment's restrictions on the States. . . . It has been given the power `to enforce,' not the power to determine what constitutes a constitutional violation. Id., at 519 (emphases added). The ultimate interpretation and determination of the Fourteenth Amendment's substantive meaning remains the province of the Judicial Branch. Id., at 536. In City of Boerne, we noted that the determination whether purportedly prophylactic legislation constitutes appropriate remedial legislation, or instead effects a substantive redefinition of the Fourteenth Amendment right at issue, is often difficult. Id., at 519-520. The line between the two is a fine one. Accordingly, recognizing that Congress must have wide latitude in determining where [that line] lies, we held that [t]here must be a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end. Id., at 520. In City of Boerne, we applied that congruence and proportionality test and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) was not appropriate legislation under § 5. We first noted that the legislative record contained very little evidence of the unconstitutional conduct purportedly targeted by RFRA's substantive provisions. Rather, Congress had uncovered only anecdotal evidence that, standing alone, did not reveal a widespread pattern of religious discrimination in this country. Id., at 531. Second, we found that RFRA is so out of proportion to a supposed remedial or preventive object that it cannot be understood as responsive to, or designed to prevent, unconstitutional behavior. Id., at 532. Last Term, we again had occasion to apply the congruence and proportionality test. In Florida Prepaid, we considered the validity of the Eleventh Amendment abrogation provision in the Patent and Plant Variety Protection Remedy Clarification Act (Patent Remedy Act). We held that the statute, which subjected States to patent infringement suits, was not appropriate legislation under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Patent Remedy Act failed to meet our congruence and proportionality test first because Congress identified no pattern of patent infringement by the States, let alone a pattern of constitutional violations. 527 U. S., at 640 (emphasis added). Moreover, because it was unlikely that many of the acts of patent infringement affected by the statute had any likelihood of being unconstitutional, we concluded that the scope of the Act was out of proportion to its supposed remedial or preventive objectives. Id., at 647. Instead, [t]he statute's apparent and more basic aims were to provide a uniform remedy for patent infringement and to place States on the same footing as private parties under that regime. Id., at 647-648. While we acknowledged that such aims may be proper congressional concerns under Article I, we found them insufficient to support an abrogation of the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity after Seminole Tribe. Florida Prepaid, supra, at 648.