Opinion ID: 427345
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: equal protection--plaintiffs and physicians in other mississippi communities

Text: 17 Plaintiffs' other equal protection claim centers on their assertion that only MSU among the eight state universities allows such a significant degree of on-campus, private practice. This policy produces an impermissible classification, according to plaintiffs, inflicting competitive disadvantage on doctors practicing near MSU while not harming doctors in other state university communities. Again, the rational relation test is appropriate; again plaintiffs' claim fails. We have little problem in conceiving of a reasonable state of facts to justify defendant's practice, Pappanastos, supra, 615 F.2d at 221, of giving each university discretion in establishing the operating levels and administrative policies of campus health care programs. It stands to reason that individual university administrations can best take into account the price and availability of local, private medical care and the age, backgrounds, medical need and general dependence on campus services of a particular student body. Just as the Equal Protection Clause does not empower the judiciary to second guess state officials charged with the difficult responsibility of allocating public welfare funds, Dandridge v. Williams, supra, 397 U.S. at 488, 90 S.Ct. at 1163, it does not empower this Court to determine either the appropriate levels of medical care to be offered at particular universities, or the best way to achieve those levels. We find the challenged practice rationally relates to the goal of good student health care.