Constitutional Law: Protection of Individual Rights: Equal Protection: Illegitmacy(non-marital children)

• Equal Protection: Illegitimacy (non-marital children). Subject to intermediate scrutiny. Any law benefiting legitimate children and one that prejudices illegitimate children is likely to be unconstitutional.

• EX: law which prevents illegitimate children from inheriting from their father if their father dies intestate – struck down.

• EX: state law allowing illegitimate children to inherit by intestate succession only if the court made finding of paternity during father’s lifetime = upheld as a scheme that furthered orderly and just distribution as death.

• State cannot totally ban an illegitimate child from having a chance to inherit.