diff --git a/desc/objectives/utils.py b/desc/objectives/utils.py
index ffaa507d3..161c3f057 100644
--- a/desc/objectives/utils.py
+++ b/desc/objectives/utils.py
@@ -92,6 +92,36 @@ def factorize_linear_constraints(objective, constraint, x_scale="auto"):  # noqa
         A = A[:, cols]
     assert A.shape[1] == xp.size
 
+    # check for degenerate rows and delete if necessary
+    # augment A with b so that it only deletes actual degenerate constraints
+    # which are duplicate rows of A that also have duplicate entries of b,
+    # if the entries of b aren't the same then the constraints are actually
+    # incompatible and so we will leave those to be caught later.
+    A_augmented = np.hstack([A, np.reshape(b, (A.shape[0], 1))])
+    row_idx_to_delete = np.array([], dtype=int)
+    for row_idx in range(A_augmented.shape[0]):
+        # find all rows equal to this row
+        rows_equal_to_this_row = np.where(
+            np.all(A_augmented[row_idx, :] == A_augmented, axis=1)
+        )[0]
+        # find the rows equal to this row that are not this row
+        rows_equal_to_this_row_but_not_this_row = rows_equal_to_this_row[
+            rows_equal_to_this_row != row_idx
+        ]
+        # if there are rows equal to this row that aren't this row, AND this particular
+        # row has not already been detected as a duplicate of an earlier one and slated
+        # for deletion, add the duplicate row indices to the array of
+        # rows to be deleted
+        if (
+            rows_equal_to_this_row_but_not_this_row.size
+            and row_idx not in row_idx_to_delete
+        ):
+            row_idx_to_delete = np.append(row_idx_to_delete, rows_equal_to_this_row[1:])
+    # delete the affected rows, and also the corresponding rows of b
+    A_augmented = np.delete(A_augmented, row_idx_to_delete, axis=0)
+    A = A_augmented[:, :-1]
+    b = np.atleast_1d(A_augmented[:, -1].squeeze())
+
     # will store the global index of the unfixed rows, idx
     indices_row = np.arange(A.shape[0])
     indices_idx = np.arange(A.shape[1])
@@ -161,7 +191,6 @@ def factorize_linear_constraints(objective, constraint, x_scale="auto"):  # noqa
         Z = np.eye(A.shape[1])
     xp = put(xp, unfixed_idx, A_inv @ b)
     xp = put(xp, fixed_idx, ((1 / D) * xp)[fixed_idx])
-
     # cast to jnp arrays
     xp = jnp.asarray(xp)
     A = jnp.asarray(A)
diff --git a/tests/test_examples.py b/tests/test_examples.py
index 93c700b36..95d46a994 100644
--- a/tests/test_examples.py
+++ b/tests/test_examples.py
@@ -178,6 +178,8 @@ def test_1d_optimization():
     constraints = (
         ForceBalance(eq=eq),
         FixBoundaryR(eq=eq),
+        FixBoundaryR(eq=eq, modes=[0, 0, 0]),  # add a degenerate constraint to confirm
+        # proximal-lsq-exact not affected by GH #1297
         FixBoundaryZ(eq=eq, modes=eq.surface.Z_basis.modes[0:-1, :]),
         FixPressure(eq=eq),
         FixIota(eq=eq),
@@ -644,6 +646,9 @@ def test_multiobject_optimization_al():
         FixParameters(surf, {"R_lmn": np.array([0]), "Z_lmn": np.array([3])}),
         FixParameters(eq, {"Psi": True, "i_l": True}),
         FixBoundaryR(eq, modes=[[0, 0, 0]]),
+        FixBoundaryR(
+            eq=eq, modes=[0, 0, 0]
+        ),  # add a degenerate constraint to test fix of GH #1297 for lsq-auglag
         PlasmaVesselDistance(surface=surf, eq=eq, target=1),
     )
 
diff --git a/tests/test_linear_objectives.py b/tests/test_linear_objectives.py
index 982e98d5d..d0c17f8e3 100644
--- a/tests/test_linear_objectives.py
+++ b/tests/test_linear_objectives.py
@@ -205,6 +205,9 @@ def test_fixed_mode_solve():
         FixIota(eq=eq),
         FixPsi(eq=eq),
         FixBoundaryR(eq=eq),
+        FixBoundaryR(
+            eq=eq, modes=[0, 0, 0]
+        ),  # add a degenerate constraint to test fix of GH #1297 for lsq-exact
         FixBoundaryZ(eq=eq),
         fixR,
         fixZ,