Unequal Treatment Under the Law Re "Equal Protection on Sewer Bills" (editorial, March 5): You are correct to conclude that the Indiana Supreme Court defied both "the Constitution and common sense" when it ruled that city governments may impose wildly disproportionate tax assessments so long as they can articulate a "plausible" reason for this unequal treatment. Unfortunately, the Indiana court's ruling is not an isolated incident. For decades, state and federal courts have applied an excessively deferential "rational basis test" to most laws that treat citizens unequally. A result of this judicial abdication is that the protection of many of our most fundamental rights is left to the self-restraint of legislators, which history has shown to be no restraint at all. Americans" liberty deserves better. The United States Supreme Court should reverse the Indiana court's ruling and make clear that false, after-the-fact justifications are never enough to justify unequal treatment. The writer is a lawyer at the Institute for Justice, which submitted an amicus brief in Armour v. City of Indianapolis.