Status Is Not a Crime.

In the spring of 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Robinson v. California, involving a Los Angeles man who had been convicted of being a narcotics addict. At trial a police officer testified that he had examined the defendant Robinson and found what appeared to be needle scars on his arm. The trial judge instructed the jury that they could find Robinson guilty if they believed he fell into the category of a drug addict. In legal terms that meant that Robinson could be convicted even if the prosecutor had failed to offer evidence of his actual use of an illegal drug. In a landmark decision handed down in June 1962, Justice Potter Stewart held that status could not be made a criminal offense. To do so, said the majority opinion, would be a cruel and...