# Madden v. Kentucky Ex Rel. Commissioner

> Supreme Court of the United States · January 29, 1940 · 309 U.S. 83

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9419077

## Case

- **Full name:** Madden, Executor, v. Kentucky, by Reeves, Commissioner of Revenue
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** January 29, 1940
- **Citations:** 309 U.S. 83; 125 A.L.R. 1383; 60 S. Ct. 406; 84 L. Ed. 590; 1940 U.S. LEXIS 956
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Hughes
- **Judges:** Reed, Hughes, Robeets, McReynolds
- **Cited by:** 532 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9419077

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that for tax classifications chal- lenged under the Fourteenth Amendment, “the presumption of constitutionality can be overcome only by the most explicit demonstration that a classification is a hostile and oppressive discrimination against particular persons and classes”
- holding that for tax classifications challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment, "the presumption of constitutionality can be overcome only by the most explicit demonstration that a classification is a hostile and oppressive discrimination against particular persons and classes"
- explaining the party asserting an equal protection violation must present evidence specifically identifying other similarly situated persons and their disparate treatment
- noting that Fourteenth Amendment plaintiff must "negative every conceivable basis” for the law under traditional rational-basis review

## Opinion text

Mr. Chief Justice Hughes
concurs in the result upon the ground, as stated by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, that the classification adopted by the legislature rested upon a reasonable basis.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9419077. Public record. Not legal advice.
