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Under traditional rational basis review—the lowest, most permissive tier of judicial scrutiny—laws are upheld so long as they are “conceivably” related to a legitimate government interest.

That aim, the court held, could not justify the law, as “a bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot constitute a legitimate government interest.”

Under established Supreme Court precedent, the singling out of a particular group for disfavored treatment—whether they be people living with disabilities, hippies, Christians, or transgender people—is never a legitimate government purpose and, instead, evidences an unconstitutional desire to harm.

City of Hialeah, a religious discrimination case, the court emphasized how a series of ordinances might, when viewed in isolation, advance legitimate government interests in the humane treatment of animals.

The UK government does not recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.