The Titles of Nobility Clauses do not outlaw inequality. They outlaw government-created legal inequality: state-engineered superior or inferior classes, hereditary privileges, or enduring status hierarchies imposed by law.
- Private hierarchy? Allowed. You can charge more for front-row seats at a concert, give VIPs a private lounge, or let rich people buy bigger houses. That’s contract, market, choice. TON doesn’t touch it.
- Public/legal hierarchy? Forbidden. Government may not grant enduring superior legal status (nobility) or impose enduring inferior legal status (ignobility/serfdom). No state-bestowed privileges/immunities/ disabilities that follow people by fiat, not merit.
The overlap zone is where things get spicy: when private actors wield government-delegated, government-enforced, or government-subsidized power to create hierarchy, TON starts sniffing around. Courts look for state action: coercion, delegation of public function, enforcement by law, or entwinement so deep the private becomes public.
Airlines: The Perfect (But Imperfect) Analogy
Airlines run a screamingly obvious caste system:
- First/Business = nobility (lie-flat thrones, champagne, priority everything)
- Premium Economy = gentry (extra legroom, slightly less misery)
- Main Cabin / Comfort+ = yeomen (pay extra for a crumb of dignity)
- Basic Economy = serfs (middle seat, last boarding, no carry-on, existential regret)
It’s manufactured scarcity: government bottlenecks (slot-controlled airports, TSA choke points) make coach unbearable, so people pay to escape. The whole profit model depends on tiered misery.
But TON doesn’t reach seating itself because:
- It’s private hierarchy: contractual, purchasable, temporary, not tied to legal status.
- Government doesn’t mandate first class, doesn’t enforce boarding groups, doesn’t create the tiers by statute.
- No state coercion forces you into Basic Economy; you chose the ticket (or your poverty did).
Yet the government builds the scaffolding:
- Public airports + slot rationing = artificial capacity choke.
- TSA/DHS security tiers (PreCheck = superior mobility class, SSSS = inferior suspicion class, watchlists = perpetual serfdom) = public/legal caste.
- RLA labor restrictions = inferior worker class (strike suppression).
- Federal preemption = states can’t touch the misery.
Collapse the public caste (TSA tiers, watchlists, clearance privileges), and the economic oxygen for seven tiers of private seating collapses too. Coach stops being profitable punishment when security/mobility isn’t already a caste lottery.
Other Examples Where the Line Blurs
- Security clearances Pure public/legal hierarchy. Government grants enduring superior access/privilege (Top Secret = nobility-lite). TON-implicated: state-created privileged order.
- Trusted Traveler programs Government-bestowed mobility nobility. PreCheck/Global Entry = superior legal class. TON-relevant.
- Watchlists / no-fly Permanent or semi-permanent inferior legal order. Mobility serfdom by administrative fiat. TON hammer territory.
- Legacy admissions at public universities Hereditary access to state-subsidized privilege. Scholars (Larson) argue it’s modern nobility. TON bite plausible.
- Sex-offender registries State-imposed perpetual inferior marking. Civil-death caste. TON directly implicated.
The Deadly Serious Punchline
Private hierarchy is fine; markets can be brutal. Public/legal hierarchy is forbidden: government may not create enduring superior/inferior classes by law or fiat. Where private actors enforce government-created caste (TSA tiers propping up airline misery), TON’s logic creeps in – collapse the unconstitutional scaffolding, and the private edifice buckles.
Airlines aren’t the villain; they’re the symptom. The real caste lives in the public/legal tiers government built and enforces. TON forbids that—categorically, without exceptions, no balancing test required. It’s not about banning first-class tickets. It’s about banning first-class citizenship.
→ Deeper notes:
[State Action Tests – When Private Becomes Public for TON Purposes]
[Airline Regulatory Scaffolding – Deregulation, Slots, TSA, RLA]
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