Geduldig v. Aiello

Geduldig v. Aiello
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 26, 1974 Decided June 17, 1974
Full case name	Geduldig v. Aiello et al.
Citations	417 U.S. 484 (more) 94 S.Ct 2485; 41 L. Ed. 256; 1974 U.S. LEXIS 23
Holding
Denial of benefits for work loss resulting from normal pregnancy does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority	Stewart, joined by Burger, White, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Douglas, Marshall

Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484 (1974), was an equal protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on whether unfavorable treatment to pregnant women could count as sex discrimination. It held that the denial of insurance benefits for work loss resulting from a normal pregnancy did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The California insurance program at issue did not exclude workers from eligibility based on sex but excluded pregnancy from a list of compensable disabilities. The majority found that even though only women would be directly affected by the administrative decision, the classification of normal pregnancy as non-compensable was not a sex-based classification and so the court would defer to the state so long as it could provide a rational basis for its categorization.