## Facts

- Florida law granted widows, but not widowers, a $500 annual property tax exemption.
- Mel Kahn, a Florida widower, applied for the exemption and was denied because the statute covered only widows.
- Kahn filed suit seeking a declaration that the widow-only exemption violated the Equal Protection Clause.
- The trial court held the statute unconstitutional as a sex-based classification.
- The Florida Supreme Court reversed, concluding the exemption reasonably related to reducing economic disparities between men and women.
- The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether a state property tax exemption available to widows but not widowers denies equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Whether the State may use sex as a classification in tax law to mitigate economic hardship associated with spousal loss.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Florida Supreme Court and upheld the statute.
- The Court held the widow-only exemption did not violate equal protection because it reasonably furthered a state policy of reducing a disproportionately heavy economic burden borne by surviving women.
- The Court emphasized states’ broad latitude in taxation and accepted the legislature’s remedial objective in light of women’s economic disadvantage.
- Dissenting Justices argued sex classifications should receive strict scrutiny or at least require stronger justification and that the objective could be achieved through sex-neutral measures based on actual need.

## Legal Principles

- States have wide discretion in structuring tax classifications; differential treatment is permissible when founded on a reasonable distinction tied to state policy.
- A sex-based classification may satisfy equal protection when it has a fair and substantial relation to a legitimate legislative objective, including remedial aims addressing demonstrated economic inequality.
- A remedial preference for women may be distinguished from classifications grounded in stereotyped assumptions when supported as a measure to mitigate a disproportionate economic burden.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld Florida’s widow-only property tax exemption, concluding that the sex-based classification reasonably served a remedial purpose of cushioning surviving women against economic hardship and therefore did not deny equal protection.


Kahn v. Shevin, 416 U.S. 351 (1974)