 However, the Court has yet to hear an Equal Protection challenge to a sex based affirmative action plan, at least in the employment context.In the context of equal protection, sex-based classifications are subject to intermediate scrutiny, a lesser standard of review than strict scrutiny, which is applied to race-based classifications.Consequently, there is a circuit split on whether sex based affirmative action plans should be subject to strict scrutiny review or the lesser intermediate scrutiny review.