The state of residence of the Jacobsen family passes a statute which requires that male heirs be preferred over female heirs in selecting an executor of an estate. Laura Jacobsen, a lawyer, would like to be the executor of her father's estate, but so would her eighteen-year-old brother who just flunked out of college. She challenges the provision as being a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case is now under consideration by the state's highest court. In deciding the constitutionality of the provision, the court will:

Question

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The court will apply the intermediate standard test because this situation involves gender discrimination. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that laws or statutes that discriminate on the basis of gender must be substantially related to an important government objective, which is the criterion of the intermediate scrutiny test.

The State of Residence of the Jacobsen Family Passes a Statute