IN Brown v. Rankin was a Supreme Court case decided in 1981. The case involved a challenge to a Georgia statute that allowed a county to require a criminal defendant to pay a fee for a court-appointed attorney. The plaintiff, Brown, argued that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court held that the statute did violate the Equal Protection Clause. The Court reasoned that the statute created a classification based on wealth, which was not a legitimate basis for a classification. The Court also noted that the statute did not provide any rational basis for the classification, and that it was not necessary to further any legitimate state interest. The Court concluded that the statute was unconstitutional and struck it down. This decision was significant because it established that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from creating classifications based on wealth. This decision has been cited in numerous subsequent cases involving the Equal Protection Clause.

IN In the dissenting opinion of Brown v. Rankin, Justice Scalia argued that the majority’s decision was wrongfully based on a misapplication of precedent and an incorrect interpretation of Title VII. He asserted that while it is true that Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment decisions due to race or color, this does not extend to prohibiting employers from considering race when making hiring decisions for reasons other than racial prejudice. In his view, allowing employers to consider race as part of their selection process can be beneficial in certain circumstances such as promoting diversity within a workplace or ensuring equal opportunity for all applicants regardless of background. Therefore, he concluded that the majority’s ruling should have been limited only to cases where there is evidence demonstrating racial bias rather than extending its reach beyond what Congress intended with Title VII.