III. Analysis

There is no specific provision in the Constitution that declares that the federal government may not deny equal protection of the laws. However, in Bolling v. Sharpe, decided on the same day as the more famous Brown v. Board of Education, the Court held that equal protection of the laws extends to the federal government through the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Through analysis, all equal protection challenges must address the same basic questions. Ultimately, an equal protection claim must demonstrate that, whatever *495 the government's classification, it is justified by a sufficient purpose. More specifically, equal protection challenges can be broken down into three questions: What is the categorization? What level of scrutiny should be applied? Does the specific government action meet the level of scrutiny as outlined by the Court?