Privacy

The MBE tests privacy by handing you a state law touching an intimate-autonomy interest and forcing you to pick the tier of scrutiny first — the answer turns on whether the right is “fundamental.” If it is, strict scrutiny applies, the burden flips to the government, and the law usually falls; if not, rational basis controls and it survives. The recurring “tell” is a post-Dobbs fact pattern: abortion is now reviewed like ordinary social-and-economic regulation under a rational basis standard, so the right answer upholds the statute, not the one applying heightened review (some older banks still file abortion under privacy as a fundamental right).

The classic trap is confusing privacy with its neighbors. Liberty is the broader Due Process container, and it splits into procedural (what process is due) versus substantive (whether the deprivation is allowed at all) — privacy lives only on the substantive side. Equal Protection keys scrutiny to a classification, not to a fundamental right; don’t grab intermediate review (the gender/legitimacy tier) for a substantive-due-process privacy claim.