norml21 - Page 70
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claim of police power in earlier times are no longer tenable° See
eoq____pachristou v. City cf Jacksonvilie, 405 U.S° 156_ 92 So
Cto 839, 31 L. Ed°2d (1970) (vagrancy laws) _
Regardless of the nature of the right involvedr or the
importance to the individual of the activity being prohibited,
the question of the appropriate exercise of the police power
centers on the requirement of legislative facts. The accuracy
and probity of the legislative findings of fact becomes
thereforef the real test of _rationalityo" Rationally exercised
power avoids unnecessary criminalizationo The role of scientific
evidence in determining whether criminal intervention is
empirically justified has been treated by Chief Justice Burger in
Paris Adult Theatre Vo Slayton, 413 U.S. 49f 93 So Cto 2628, 37
L. Ed.2d 446 (1973). There, the appellant argues that no
scientific data was available which conclusively demonstrated
that exposure to obscene material adversely affected men and
women or their society. The appellant urged that absent such a
demonstrationf any kind of state regulation was '_impermissibleo"
The court, with Justice Burger writing for the majority_ rejected
this argument° "It is not for us to resolve empirical
uncertainties underlying state legislation, save in the
exceptional case where that leqi$1ation pl_inlv_i_pin_es uRon
ri hts_otected bz the Constitution itself_" 413 UoS. at 60
7O
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