In its discussion of the scope of "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment the Court stated:
Neither the Bill of Rights nor the specific practices of the States at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment marks the outer limits of the substantive sphere of liberty which the Fourteenth Amendment protects. See U.S. Const., Amend. 9. As the second Justice Harlan recognized:
"[T]he full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause `cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution. This `liberty´ is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints, . . . and which also recognizes, what a reasonable and sensitive judgment must, that certain interests require particularly careful scrutiny of the state needs asserted to justify their abridgment."
Poe v. Ullman, supra, 367 U.S. at 543, 81 S.Ct., at 1777
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If you can understand this aggie, -- it 'boldly' says that we are to be free of arbitrary takings of property.
- Prohibitions are not due process, they are prior restraints on the possession of quite ordinary substances or property, -- that granted, - can be criminally abused.
-- And again, granted, - states have the power to regulate public use of such substances. But not ban or criminalize their mere possession.
ar·bi·trar·y Pronunciation Key (ärb-trr)
adj.
pur·pose·less Pronunciation Key (pûrps-ls) adj.
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Laws that prohibit the ownership of substances where mere possesion is a threat to others, and is supported by the majority of the state are neither arbitrary or purposeless. If the state, without consent of the majority suddenly banned bicycles just for the heck of it, that would be arbitrary and purposeless.