Thursday, February 05, 2004

Why Rules Against Student Gum-Chewing Fail Rational Basis Scrutiny

The February 9 edition of the New Yorker reports on a controlled study undertaken by Dr. Kenneth Allen, a professor of dentistry at NYU, establishing beyond reasonable scientific peradventure that chewing gum in class will raise your dental anatomy grade from a C+ to a B-.

Wrigley's sugarless gum, that is, because this is dental school, after all.

posted by pn at 1:42 AM  

Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.