Question

What is judicial restraint? It is the appropriate approach toward constitutional law in the United States?

Answer 1

Judicial Restraint is a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power. It asserts that judges should hesitate to strike down laws unless they are obviously unconstitutional. Judicially-restrained judges respect stare-decisis, the principle of upholding established precedent handed down by past judges.

In U.S. federal courts, several doctrines operate to promote procedural restraint. The requirement of standing, drawn from the federal court jurisdiction outlined in Article III of the Constitution, restricts access to court to those who can demonstrate a concrete injury, caused by the defendant, and redressable by a judicial decision. Federal courts will not hear suits pursuing generalized grievances or seeking abstract legal guidance, and this aspect of restraint is linked to the view of courts as institutions designed to resolve disputes rather than to promulgate legal norms and some American states, courts regularly decide legal issues in the absence of adversary proceedings.) Similarly, the doctrine of ripeness prevents plaintiffs from seeking judicial relief while a threatened harm is merely conjectural, and the doctrine of smoothness prevents judges from deciding cases after a dispute has concluded and legal resolution will have no practical effect.

Even if cases may properly be heard in federal court in the United States, judicial restraint offers limiting procedural devices. The canon of constitutional avoidance directs courts to decide constitutional questions only as a last resort. Thus, if a case may be decided on multiple grounds, judges should prefer one that allows them to avoid a constitutional issue. The canon of constitutional doubt advises courts to construe statutes so as to avoid constitutional questions. If two readings of a statute are possible, and one raises doubt about the statute’s constitutionality, the other should be preferred.

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