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Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History

The Court Case

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McNeill Smith (UNC class of 1938) took on the case pro bono and received substantial assistance from UNC Law Professor Dan Pollitt and Duke Law Professor William Van Alstyne. Both Pollitt and Van Alstyne had argued all along that the law was flawed and would not hold up under legal scrutiny. They criticized the legal basis on which the law was created, citing several precedents in which similar laws had been ruled unconstitutional.