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constitutional avoidance

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A quick definition of constitutional avoidance:

Constitutional avoidance is when the Supreme Court tries to avoid making decisions about the Constitution if they can. Instead, they try to solve cases using other laws. This means that if there are two ways to understand a law, and one way is clearly okay with the Constitution, while the other way might not be, the Supreme Court will choose the way that is okay with the Constitution. This is to avoid having to make hard decisions about the Constitution. For example, in one case, the Supreme Court said that a law that said people had to have a jury trial for breaking a court order only applied to criminal cases, not civil cases. This was because having a jury trial for civil cases might not be okay with the Constitution.

A more thorough explanation:

Constitutional avoidance is a legal principle that suggests that the Supreme Court should avoid ruling on constitutional issues if possible. Instead, they should try to resolve cases based on other grounds, such as statutory interpretation.

For example, if the Supreme Court is faced with two possible interpretations of a law, one of which is clearly constitutional and the other of which is questionable, the court will choose the interpretation that is constitutional to avoid having to make a difficult constitutional decision.

One example of constitutional avoidance is the case of Michaelson et al v. United States ex rel. Chicago. In this case, the court interpreted the Clayton Act's requirement of a jury trial for contempt of court charges to apply only to criminal contempt charges. This was because legislation mandating jury trials for civil contempt of court raises constitutional questions.

Another example of constitutional avoidance is the case of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. In this case, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate as a tax, rather than as a regulation of interstate commerce. This allowed the court to avoid ruling on the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause.

These examples illustrate how the Supreme Court uses constitutional avoidance to avoid making difficult constitutional decisions. Instead, they try to resolve cases based on other grounds, such as statutory interpretation or tax law.

constitutional amendment | constitutional clauses

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16:14
Justice as Fairness!
16:14
also wow I didn’t consider that about immigration policy. hmmm
16:17
@Law-Guy: you get it
16:19
@baddestbunny: oh yeah definitly. Idk how any system of government would work if you can't distribute social goods to everyone.
MildChiller
16:33
does anyone know if the Yale webinars are cameras on?
1a2b3c4d26z
16:35
Justice as deez!
17:49
Quentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody’s ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear.
18:03
Quentin Tarantino can't resist putting a gay scene with a black guy participating in the gay act in his movies.
18:05
David Lynch is just gay.
18:18
Lynch is more in touch with his unconscious/dream state than the average person
18:42
Probably. I just dont know. All I know is he did a good job with Dune.
18:45
You should watch Blue Velvet
18:46
How’s your LSAT studying been going?
18:49
It is good. I have about two more weeks and I broke the 90 level on LSAT Demon which is good last night. My goal is 95 so I can probably get it before I test. It is scaled our of 100. This is for LR. My RC is below that but I know the more I get better at MBT questions the better my RC becomes.
18:50
I watched the trailer for that movie. The run time is 2 hours. May watch it on 2x the speed. Just watched se7en and thats like as graphic as I get so I kinda need a break from weird bodyhorror stuff. The sloth guy in that movie scared me.
18:51
I do like psychological horror though.
18:53
Oh jesus don’t watch the movie at all if you’re gonna watch it on 2x speed
18:54
I have never used lsat demon; how do their levels relate to actual lsat scoring?
18:56
kinda go in 20 point intervals. 20 points if you have mastered lvl 1 difficulty questions, 100 points if you have mastered lvl 5.
18:56
Getting 100 points is incredibly difficult though. anything baout 95 is pushing the 175-180 range. 90-95 is like 170-174 or so. etc.
18:56
yeah but if you’re getting a 95 on all sections what LSAT score is that? how is that calculated?
18:56
oh okay
18:57
so 100 would be a 180?
18:57
Yeah, 100 is like you would get a 180 and there's nothing more to teach you. I have only seen someone with a 100 like 2/3 times.
18:57
are you taking practice tests that are being scored though?
18:57
or just drills
18:57
Yep, they get factored into it.
18:58
I do drilling essentially every day. A timed section every 3, and a test every 2 weeks.
1a2b3c4d26z
20:06
re: WashU's URM lsat differential - fair to chalk that up to LSAT redaction weirdness messing w the scale or are they generally starved for URMs
1a2b3c4d26z
20:07
And an (albeit negligible) inverse URM GPA differential
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