City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc.
| City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc. | |
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| Argued March 18, 1985 Decided April 23, 1985 |
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| Full case name | City of Cleburne, Texas, et al. v. Cleburne Living Center, et al. |
| Citations | 473 U.S. 432 (more)
105 S.Ct. 3249, 87 L.Ed.2d 313
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| Holding | |
| Possessing an intellectual disability is not a quasi-suspect classification calling for a heightened level of scrutiny, but nevertheless, the requirement of a special use permit for a proposed group home for people with intellectual disabilities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because no rational basis for the discriminatory classification could be shown, and in the absence of such justification, the classification appeared to be based on irrational prejudice against the intellectually disabled. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | White, joined by Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor |
| Concurrence | Stevens, joined by Burger |
| Concur/dissent | Marshall, joined by Brennan, Blackmun |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc., 473 U.S. 432 (1985), was a U.S. Supreme Court case involving discrimination against the intellectually disabled.
In 1980, Cleburne Living Center, Inc. (CLC) submitted a permit application seeking approval to build a group home for the intellectually disabled. The city of Cleburne, Texas refused to grant CLC a permit on the basis of a municipal zoning ordinance. CLC then sued the City of Cleburne on the theory that the denial of the permit violated the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection rights of CLC and their potential residents.
Applying rational basis review, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ordinance as applied to CLC. The Court declined to rule that the intellectually disabled were a quasi-suspect or suspect class.
In July 1980, Jan Hannah purchased a building at 201 Featherston Street in the city of Cleburne with the intent of leasing it to CLC so that they could operate it as a group home for the intellectually disabled. The home was intended to house a total of thirteen mentally disabled men and women. CLC staff would supervise the residents at all times. The house itself had four bedrooms and two baths, with another half bath to be added.
The city of Cleburne informed CLC that a special use permit would be required for a group home such as this, and so CLC submitted the permit application. The city's zoning regulations required that a special use permit, renewable annually, was required for the construction of "[hospitals] for the insane or feeble-minded, or alcoholic [sic] or drug addicts, or penal or correctional institutions" (436). The city had classified the group home as a "hospital for the feebly minded" (437).
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