Constitutional Law (Part II) - Equal Protection Challenges to Statutory Rape Law
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Authors
Strom, Cassie A.
Issue Date
1981
Volume
14
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
INTRODUCTION|In Navedo v. Preisser, the Eighth Circuit was confronted with a gender-based equal protection challenge to Iowa's statutory rape law. The statute punished only males over the age of twenty-five for engaging in sexual intercourse with females under the age of seventeen. Prior to the Eighth Circuit's decision, the Iowa Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of the statute under the fourteenth amendment in State v. Drake, concluding that "sex is the only possible classification if the purposes of the statute [the protection of certain young females from intercourse] are to be realized. The Eighth Circuit disagreed with the Iowa Supreme Court and found that the statute violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. This article will discuss the Supreme Court's development of the "middle-tier" standard of review for gender-based discrimination challenges. This discussion will enable us to analyze the Eighth Circuit's holding in Navedo through an application of the Supreme Court's guidelines for reviewing gender-based legislation....
Description
Citation
14 Creighton L. Rev. 1088 (1980-1981)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law