Fair Laws

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Regarding the airlines question, it, in a general sense, boils down to proving "compelling governmental interest"
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provides that "No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." U.S. CONST. amend. XIV § 1. Because the "rights created by the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment are, by its terms, guaranteed to the individual," Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 22 (1948), "a [state's] racial classification causes 'fundamental injury' to the 'individual rights of a person,'" Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899, 908 (1996) (internal citation omitted).

Accordingly, the Supreme Court's precedents set a high hurdle for any state actor that wishes to apply a race-based classification: The state actor must demonstrate that its racial classification advances a "compelling governmental interest[ ]" and that its use of race is "narrowly tailored" to meet that interest. Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 227 (1995); see also City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 493-94 (1989) (plurality opinion) (same).

The burden of proving that the racial classification is narrowly tailored to meet a compelling governmental interest lies with the governmental actor. Mere recital of a compelling governmental interest is not enough to satisfy the government's burden under the strict scrutiny standard. Instead, the government must provide a "strong basis in evidence for its conclusion" that its use of race is compelling. Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Educ., 476 U.S. 267, 277 (1986) (plurality opinion); Croson, 488 U.S. at 500.

The Supreme Court has adopted these high hurdles to government's use of race because "[a]bsent searching judicial inquiry into the justification for such race-based measures, there is simply no way of determining what classifications are 'benign' or 'remedial' and what classifications are in fact ...