Personal preferences are not a legal standard.
When two people submit applications, an authority cannot simply favour one because it prefers that person’s origin or beliefs. Government decisions must follow the applicable legal standards. Article 3 also identifies specific characteristics on which discrimination or preferential treatment must not be based.
The catalogue uses the broad term “unequal treatment”. For understanding it, the qualification “unlawful” matters. Equality does not require materially different situations always to be treated identically. It requires sufficient justification for distinctions and respect for specific discrimination prohibitions.
The other three answers
The first three options identify protected ways to participate in public life.
freedom of speech for residents.
Article 5 protects expression. Laws do not generally prohibit residents from expressing views. Legal limits on particular statements are a different matter.
petitions by citizens.
Article 17 gives everyone the right to address written requests or complaints to competent bodies and representative assemblies. A petition is not generally prohibited conduct.
freedom of assembly for residents.
Freedom of assembly is protected, not generally prohibited. Article 8 names peaceful, unarmed assemblies and expressly identifies Germans as its holders. Rules for a particular assembly are a separate issue.
Equality does not require identical outcomes.
Consider benefits whose statutory conditions depend on financial need. Different financial circumstances can justify different outcomes. That differs from deciding out of personal dislike for someone.
What counts as sufficient justification depends on the distinction and the rights affected. Any convenient pretext will not do. Article 3(1) also refers to all people, even though the exam option speaks here of citizens.
Article 3 · Basic Law ↗Equal treatment requires reasons, not arbitrariness.
Remember the exam answer without reading it as a ban on every legally justified distinction.
Three words for this question
- die Ungleichbehandlungunequal treatment
- Treating people or cases differently; the legal question is whether it is justified.
- willkürlicharbitrary
- Without sufficient objective justification.
- die Petitionpetition
- A written request or complaint to a competent public body or representative assembly.