The Fourteenth Amendment also declares that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This is the Equal Protection Clause. Equal Protection Clause Part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; provides that no state shall deny a person the equal protection of the laws. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to extend the same limitation to the federal government.

The Supreme Court has determined that even though this language does not appear in the Fifth Amendment, its prohibition is implicit in the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and is applicable to the federal government as well as to the states. Equal protection is concerned with laws and actions that classify and treat people differently. Equal protection is important to administrative law in two respects.

First, the Equal Protection Clause applies to all laws, both state and federal, regardless of their source. Second, it is possible for a law to be consistent with equal protection, but an agency’s enforcement of that law to be violative of equal protection. Not all classifications are violative of equal protection. Actually, most classifications are necessary and lawful. Classifying people is inherent in the lawmaking process.

What law or action violates the Equal Protection Clause? The Supreme Court has developed a three-tiered test to determine if equal protection has been violated. This test is also used to determine if substantive due process has been violated. Hence, the test is used if the government classifies people for purposes of regulation and when the law encroaches upon a constitutional right. A law may violate equal protection if it is either overtly or covertly discriminatory.