Cite as: 538 U. S. 343 (2003)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
of the statute violates the Constitution, it is necessary, first, to establish precisely what the presentation of prima facie evidence accomplishes.
Typically, "prima facie evidence" is defined as:
"Such evidence as, in the judgment of the law, is sufficient to establish a given fact . . . and which if not rebutted or contradicted, will remain sufficient. [Such evidence], if unexplained or uncontradicted, is sufficient to sustain a judgment in favor of the issue which it supports, but [it] may be contradicted by other evidence." Black's Law Dictionary 1190 (6th ed. 1990).
The Virginia Supreme Court has, in prior cases, embraced this canonical understanding of the pivotal statutory language. E. g., Babbitt v. Miller, 192 Va. 372, 379-380, 64 S. E. 2d 718, 722 (1951) ("Prima facie evidence is evidence which on its first appearance is sufficient to raise a presumption of fact or establish the fact in question unless rebutted"). For example, in Nance v. Commonwealth, 203 Va. 428, 124 S. E. 2d 900 (1962), the Virginia Supreme Court interpreted a law of the Commonwealth that (1) prohibited the possession of certain "burglarious" tools "with intent to commit burglary, robbery, or larceny . . . ," and (2) provided that "[t]he possession of such burglarious tools . . . shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to commit burglary, robbery or larceny." Va. Code Ann. § 18.1-87 (1960). The court explained that the prima-facie-evidence provision "cuts off no defense nor interposes any obstacle to a contest of the facts, and 'relieves neither the court nor the jury of the duty to determine all of the questions of fact from the weight of the whole evidence.' " Nance v. Commonwealth, 203 Va., at 432, 124 S. E. 2d, at 903-904; see also ibid., 124 S. E. 2d, at 904 (noting that the prima-facie-evidence provision " 'is merely a rule of evidence and not the determination of a fact . . .'").
The established meaning in Virginia, then, of the term "prima facie evidence" appears to be perfectly orthodox: It
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