1. Levy v. Louisiana, (1968)

2. Facts: A state law prohibited unacknowleged illegitimate children the right to recover for the wrongful death of their mother. The state justification was administrative simplification of proceedings by relying on “formal papers.”

3. Issue: Whether the law violated equal protection.

4. Holding: Yes.

5. Majority Reasoning: [Douglas] The test is rational basis, but the court has been extremely sensitive when it comes to basic civil rights. There is no reason that the tortfeasor should go unpunished just because the mother had illegitimate children rather than legitimate ones. It is invidious to discriminate against the illegitimate child when his characteristics have no relation whatsoever to the nature of the harm inflicted on the mother.

6. Dissent Reasoning: [Harlan] The interest that one person has in another’s life is inherently intractable. Thus, the state may justifiably and rationally define eligible wrongful death plaintiffs in terms of their legal, rather than biological relation to the deceased.

7. Notes: Three years later in Labine v. Vincent, the court distinguished Levy, and upheld a law, under the rational basis test, that subordinated the intestate succession rights of an acknowleged illegitimate child to those of other relatives of the parent. However, the court followed Levy in Weber where the death benefits from a workmen’s compensation law could not be subordinated to the claims of legitimate children. In Matthew v. Lucas the court upheld a social security benefits law which made benefits harder to get for surviving illegitimate children, distinguishing all prior illegitimacy cases, and stating that illegitimacy was not “an obvious badge” like race or sex.