Textual Canons
What are textual canons of interpretation?
Inferences drawn from linguistic common sense
What are substantive canons of interpretation?
Reflections of judicial preferences regarding policy decisions.
In what case did the Court apply the textual canon Noscitur a sociis (a word is known by the company it keeps)?
Yates v. United States
Why is punctuation and grammar important in statutory interpretation?
Canons consider these issues down to the level of the difference between a comma and a semicolon.
What is the Last Antecedent Rule?
Dictates that a modifier, such as a phrase or clause, generally applies only to the nearest reasonable antecedent it follows.
What is the Rule of Lenity?
Requires that ambiguous criminal statutes be interpreted in favor of the criminal defendant.
Begay v. United States
What Supreme Court Justice approved of and frequently applied the avoidance canon?
Justice Scalia
What does the Expressio Unius Canon mean?
The inclusion of one thing implies the exclusion of others.
What is the Avoidance Canon?
Based on the idea that courts in appropriate circumstances should avoid statutory interpretations that would render a statute unconstitutional or that would raise constitutional difficulties.
What case utilized the Expressio Unius canon (the inclusion of one thing implies the exclusion of others)?
Bruesewitz v. Wyeth LLC
What are two takeaways that legislative drafters should take from canons of statutory interpretations?
What does the Noscitur a sociis Canon mean?
A word is known by the company it keeps.
What is the Democracy Canon?
Applies to all statutes tending to limit the citizen in the exercise of the right of suffrage should be liberally construed in his favor.
What case utilized the Federalism Canon?
Gregory v. Ashcroft
In what three categories is the Democracy Canon utilized?
Vote counting cases (most prevalent in this context)
Voter eligibility/registration cases
Candidate/party competitiveness cases
What does the Ejusdem Generis Canon mean?
Where general words follow specific words, the general words are [usually] construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the proceeding specific words.
What is the Federalism Canon?
Unless Congress is very clear in its statutory language showing a contrary intention, the Court will read a statute potentially limiting state power or regulating states in as narrow a way possible to protect the interests of federalism.
In what case did the Court apply the Last Antecedent Rule?
Lockhart v. United States
What are the justifications for Ejusdem generis?
(1) when initial terms belong to an identifiable genus, one can presume that the speaker or writer has that category in mind for the entirety of the passage (2) when that tagalong general term is given its broadest application, it renders the prior enumeration superfluous.