John Masters, a licensed psychotherapist, has been charged with violating a new state statute making it a crime for “any licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychotherapist to have sexual intercourse with a patient during the existence of the professional relationship.” Masters is challenging the constitutionality of the statute on two principal grounds:

(a) that it intrudes on his right of privacy and

(b) that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in that it fails to apply the same prohibition to other health care professionals. Do you think Masters is likely to prevail in his challenge to the statute? If you were a judge faced with these constitutional questions, how would you be inclined to rule? What additional information would you need to render your decision?