Labine v. Vincent/Concurrence Harlan

by by John Marshall Harlan

United States Supreme Court

401 U.S. 532

Labine  v.  Vincent

 Argued: Jan. 19, 1971. --- Decided: March 29, 1971

Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring.

In joining the opinion of the Court, I wish to add a few words, prompted, I may say, by the dissenting opinion, which in my view evinces extravagant notions of what constitutes a denial of 'equal protection' in the constitutional sense.

It is surely entirely reasonable for Louisiana to provide that a man who has entered into a marital relationship thereby undertakes obligations to any resulting offspring beyond those which he owes to the products of a casual liaison, and this whether or not he admits the fact of fatherhood in the latter case. With respect to a substantial portion of a man's estate, these greater obligations stemming from marriage are imposed by the provision of Louisiana law making a man's legitimate children his forced heirs. For the remainder of his estate, these obligations are not absolute, but are conditional upon his not disposing of his property in other ways. With all respect to my dissenting Brethren, I deem little short of frivolous the contention that the Equal Protection Clause prohibits enforcement of marital obligations, in either the mandatory or the suppletive form. See H. M. Hart & A. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in the Making and Application of Law 35-36, 251-256 (tent. ed. 1958).

In addition to imposing these obligations, Louisiana law prohibits testamentary dispositions to one's illegitimate children. Even were my dissenting Brethren prepared to hold this rule of law unconstitutional, to do so would not affect the outcome of this case. First, appellant's child is 'natural' rather than 'illegitimate'; and second, if the father desired her to have his property after his death, he did not manifest that desire in the appropriate way.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN, with whom Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, Mr. Justice WHITE, and Mr. Justice MARSHALL join, dissenting.

Notes