With this limited view of the Amendments' purposes, the Court interpreted their protections very narrowly. First, the Court rejected the butchers' equal protection arguments, saying that it "doubtvery much" that the Equal Protection Clause would ever prohibit anything other than state laws discriminating against black people as a class. Next, the Court rejected the butchers' due process arguments, saying that "under no construction of [the Due Process Clause that we have ever seen, or any that we deem admissible," could the state's restrictions on the butchers' work constitute a "deprivation of property" under the Due Process Clause.