[PDF] federal courts constitutional avoidance

What is constitutional avoidance?

Constitutional avoidance is a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that dictates that United States federal courts should refuse to rule on a constitutional issue if the case can be resolved without involving constitutionality.

Can a court avoid a ruling that invalidates a law?

After providing general background on the power of judicial review and the major theories on the constitutional avoidance doctrine, this report explores the various rules that allow a court to avoid a ruling that invalidates a democratically enacted law and the logic behind those rules.

Are Bickel & Sunstein a critic of the constitutional avoidance doctrine?

Notwithstanding the near omnipresence of the constitutional avoidance doctrine at the Roberts Court, the doctrine and the work of Professors Bickel and Sunstein are not without their critics, both inside and outside of the Court.

What is the avoidance doctrine?

In this sense, the avoidance doctrine may be a means of reinforcing and correcting congressional intransigence on major legal issues, potentially casting (...continued) (1983). 229 134 S. Ct. at 2093-94. 230 See CRS Report WSLG961, Avoiding the Issue: The Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine and Bond v. United States, by Andrew Nolan.