Substantive Due Process and Felony Treatment of Pot Smokers: The Current Conflict

Authors

• F.H. von U., University of Georgia School of Law

Publication Date

1968

Abstract

The Supreme Court, in recent years, has consistently reaffirmed a trend toward a fuller recognition of individual liberties. When these cherished incidents of American citizenship have conflicted with the real or imagined needs of society, the Court has applied a vital and expanding concept of due process to determine the proper balance of interests. It is now recognized that the State must demonstrate a truly rational basis for punishing individual conduct, aid where proscriptive rather than regulatory measures are enacted, legislation must carefully avoid jeopardizing harmless conduct, however offensive to public taste. Restrictive legislation must be grounded in fact, and where the State's facts have proved inadequate in the face of medical, psychological and sociological evidence to the contrary, unreasonable laws acquiesced in by a passive citizenry have been summarily in- validated at the urging of affected minorities. The anticipated result of such thoughtful and impartial judicial scrutiny is greater respect for the law based on the citizen's faith in the reasonableness of laws by which lie is governed.

Recommended Citation

U., F.H. von (1968) "Substantive Due Process and Felony Treatment of Pot Smokers: The Current Conflict," Georgia Law Review: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol2/iss2/6