norml22 - Page 14
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is usually interpreted as denoting the
inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of
inferiority affects the motivation of a child
to learn_ Segregation with the sanction of
the laws therefore, has a tendency to retard
the educational and mental development of
Negro children and to deprive them of some of
the benefits they would receive in a racially
integrated school system° _lhgl_Y_L_i_/laV_
been__the ent ' __/_9__19e _ q_e at_
th_@_ t ime 9__PJ_____/fej_gu___l____h i s_c[ind ing
_s amply $/&p_p_Qrted_by modgr/l_9_13QrJEhZ
(citing numerous scientific studies).
347 U_S. at 494 (emphasis added).
While arbitrariness and irrationality may not be evident
from the literal words of a statute, such arbitrariness and
irrationality may be demonstrated by scientific or other
empirical evidence° The Supreme Court reaffirmed this principle
in __r___y__Un_te_ S__a_tes_ 395 UoS. 6_ 90 S.Ct. !532t 23 LoEd.2d
57 (1969)o There the Court was presented with a challenge to 21
U.S.C. § 176a_ which provided that persons who possessed
marijuana in the United States would be presumed to know that the
marijuana had been illegally imported° After surveying a mass of
reports_ studies, and articles by experts on the cultivatione
importation, and distribution of marijuana, the Court concluded
that it could not be said that '_ o . at least a majority of
marijuana possessors have learned of the foreign origin of their
marijuana. 'w _ 52. Accordinglyg in light of the empirical
data, the Court struck down the presumption as invalid. The
Court expressly stated:
A statute based upon a legis!atJve
declaration of facts is subject to
constitutional attack on the ground that the
facts no longer exist; in ruling upon such a
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