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1 1 (March 29, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govefmn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: is Congressional ______ SResearch Service The Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine: Judicial Minimalism (Part 1 of 3) March 29, 2022 The Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine (see CRS Legal Sidebar LSB10719, The Modes of Constitutional Analysis: The Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine (Part 9)) is a set of rules the Supreme Court has developed to guide federal courts in disposing of cases that raise constitutional questions in order to minimize tensions that arise when an unelected federal judiciary sets aside laws enacted by Congress or state legislatures. Under the Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine, federal courts should interpret the Constitution only when it is a strict necessity. In a concurring opinion in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, Justice Louis Brandeis identified seven rules comprising the Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine: (1) the Rule Against Feigned or Collusive Lawsuits; (2) Ripeness; (3) Judicial Minimalism; (4) the Last Resort Rule; (5) Standing and Mootness; (6) Constitutional Estoppel; and (7) the Constitutional- Doubt Canon. Rules (1), (2), (5), and (6) inform whether a court can hear a case (i.e., whether it is justiciable), while Rules (3), (4), and (7) inform how a court should address constitutional questions in cases before it. This Legal Sidebar Post on Judicial Minimalism is the first of three that look at this latter set of rules. Because the Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine informs how the Court is likely to resolve disputes involving the constitutionality of laws, understanding the Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine may assist Congress in its legislative activities. Providing substantive guidance on how courts should address constitutional questions, judicial minimalism instructs courts not to formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied. Instead, a court should limit its rulings to the facts of the case before it and avoid establishing broad precedents. By applying judicial minimalism, courts may forestall ruling on politically contentious constitutional issues, thereby allowing elected legislatures further opportunities to craft political resolutions. In addition, by drafting opinions narrowly, Justices may find it easier to build consensus in the Court by reducing the scope of issues to which they must agree. When employing judicial minimalism, courts frequently pass over questions of constitutional import to focus more narrowly on issues specific to the case. For instance, in Liverpool, N. & Philadelphia Steam- Ship v. Commissioners on Emigration, a steamship corporation organized under the laws of Great Britain sued the New York Commissioners of Emigration seeking the recovery of money the corporation had paid for bringing emigrants to the United States. The state laws that authorized the commissioners to collect money from the steamship company had been struck down as unconstitutional state regulation of foreign commerce. However, the defendant commission argued that an Act of Congress barred the plaintiff's Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10720 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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