norml21 - Page 67
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regulatory measures furthering health and safety, carries with it
the peculiar stigma that heightens the potentially repressive
effect of such restrictions on individual behavior and choice°
Empirical justifications for the exercise of the coercive power
of the state are particularly difficult to ascertain where the
power exercised is broadly defined by such terms as public
health, safety, welfare and morals.
Defining the limits of the police power in terms of
"rational '_ versus the _arbitrary _' exercise of governmental
authority does not readily enable us to draw with precision a
manageable and predictable standard for both legislative action
and judicial review that would neither preclude an examination of
the legislative facts or render legislative decision-making
susceptible to the excessive application of judicial prejudices
and values°
If legislatures are to act responsibly, and courts are to be
neutral and objective in their review of legislation under the
broad police power, then the capacity to <[raw distinctions
between the permissible and impermissible exercise of the
criminal sanction becomes crucial. To say, as did the Supreme
Court of Washington in Citz of Spokane v_Bostrom, 12 Wash. Appo
114, 528 P.2d 500 (1974)_ that there is no requirement that the
Court find facts justifying the ordinance is to abdicate, in
practice, any review of legislation, it is the right of the
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