norml21 - Page 70



Page 70 Previous , Next , Original Image
Return to Index

 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




Previous , Next , Return to Index