In 1980, Cleburne Living Center, Inc. (CLC) submitted a permit application seeking approval to build a group home for intellectually disabled people.

In July 1980, Jan Hannah purchased a building at 201 Featherston Street, within the city limits of Cleburne, with the intent of leasing it to CLC so that they could operate it as a group home for intellectually disabled people.

The Federal District Court found that if the potential residents of CLC's group home had not been intellectually disabled the permit would have been granted.

The District Court held that intellectually disabled people were neither a suspect nor a quasi-suspect class and therefore the rational basis test should be applied.

[2] The Court declined to grant intellectually disabled people status as a suspect or quasi-suspect class because they are a "large and diversified group" amply protected by state and federal legislatures.

Therefore, any legislation that distinguishes between intellectually disabled people and others must be rationally related to a legitimate government interest in order to withstand equal protection review.

Another example of the Supreme Court holding that government legislation was unconstitutional when it applied to rational basis level of review was the landmark gay-rights decision in Romer v. Evans.