While
police can't
deny contact with a lawyer, other cases have found that prison authorities have a good deal of
power to regulate constitutional rights for legitimate penological interests (like security).
Only recently, this Court had occasion to declare that a state law which
denied equal enjoyment of property rights to a designated class of citizens of specified race and ancestry was not a legitimate exercise of the state's
police power, but violated the guaranty of the equal protection of the laws.