Discrimination Against Illegitimate Children

Abstract

Although the Supreme Court has hinted in recent years that illegitimacy may be a suspect classification for equal protection purposes, a six-man majority firmly rejected this proposition last Term in Mathews v. Lucas. Employing “less than strictest scrutiny,” the Court went on to uphold provisions relating to survivors' benefits of the Social Security Act that denied one group of illegitimate children the conclusive presumption of eligibility given to all other children.