Suspect Classification
A government classification — race, national origin, or alienage — that triggers strict scrutiny under equal protection.
The MBE tests this by burying the classification in the facts and daring you to skip a step: first identify the trait, then pick the tier, then apply it. The favorite trap is alienage, which splits — state and local discrimination against lawful aliens is suspect (strict scrutiny), but the federal government gets near-rational-basis deference (immigration is a plenary federal power), and even a state may use rational basis under the political-function exception (police, teachers, jurors, voters). Watch facially neutral laws too: the answer hinges on discriminatory purpose, so a law that merely produces disparate impact gets only rational basis absent intent.
Don’t confuse the classification with the right. If the question turns on a fundamental right (voting, travel, privacy), that flows through liberty and substantive due process or equal protection’s fundamental-rights strand — not the suspect-class analysis (abortion left that set after Dobbs). And keep gender in the quasi-suspect lane: students reflexively upgrade sex to strict scrutiny, but it stays intermediate, now demanding an “exceedingly persuasive justification” after VMI.
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