Statutory Interpretation

Agency

"each authority of the Government of the United States ... not include[ing Congress, the courts, state governments, etc. ]" (p. 561)

Rule against Surplusage (or Redundancy) (p. 295)

According to the ____ _______ __________, the proper interpretation of a statute is one in which every word has meaning; nothing is redundant or meaningless. Two aspects to this canon: 1) every word must have independent meaning; and 2) two different words cannot have the same meaning.

implied cause of action

An _______ _____ __ ______exists when a court determines that even though a statute does not expressly grant private parties the right to sue, the statute does so implicitly.(p. 549)

Conference Committee Report

At the top of the legislative history hierarchy; an ad hoc conference committee meets, discusses the differences in the bill, resolves those differences, recommends action, and writes a report analyzing its work. - Very good evidence of what the legislature wanted as a whole. (p. 413)

Override (p. 63)

Congress's ability to overcome a president's veto of a bill, requires 2/3 positive vote from each chamber of Congress

constitutional avoidance doctrine

In theory, the ______________ _________ ________ should apply ONLY IF: there are two REASONABLE and FAIR interpretations of a statute (p. 215)

Skidmore Deference (p. 646)

Judicial deference to agency interpretations that do not receive Chevron deference; agency interpretations receive deference to the extent that they have the power-to-persuade the court

Legislative History Hierarchy (p. 413-418)

Some types of legislative history are more relevant than other types; in order words, there is a ___________ _______ _________. 1) conference committee report; 2) committee reports; 3) committee prints; 4) earlier drafts, or versions of the bills & the rejected amendments to it; 5) previously rejected bill; 6) drafter's commentary; 7) floor statements/remarks/debates that take place in either the Committee of the Whole or on the floor of either chamber; and 8) executive signing statements and veto messages.

plain meaning

The absurdity doctrine allows judges to avoid the results of the _____ _______ canon in those cases where it would be absurd to believe the legislature intended the statute to apply as written. (p. 202)

linguistic canons

The point of the __________ ______ is to help a reader understand the ordinary meaning of the words used; hence, the canons should be used in search for ordinary meaning. (p. 306)

Identical Words Presumption (p. 263)

This canon presumes that when the legislature uses the same word in different parts of the same act or a related act, the legislature intended those words to have the same meaning (consistent usage). Contrary, if the legislature uses a word in one part of an act or a related act, then changes to a different in another part of the same or related act, the legislature intended to change the meaning (meaningful variation)

Preemption (p. 387)

To determine whether __________ exists, courts look to see whether the conflict between federal and state law is such that it is impossible for an individual to comply with both laws, or whether the state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the federal object. -> Either is sufficient.

broadly

We might expect non-textualist judges to define ambiguity _______, if they choose to define it at all. (p. 182)

narrowly

We might expect textualist judges to define ambiguity ________. (p. 182)

unifier (p. 269)

When applying noscitur a sociis, judges try to find the shared trait, called the _______, in the list of terms.

textualist

__________ judges often require a finding of ambiguity before they will consider the linguistic canons, including in pari materia. (p. 263)

Act

a bill that Congress has passed and the president has signed; an enacted bill (p. 309)

Appropriations Bill

a bill that authorizes the government to spend money

Enrolled Bill

a bill that both chambers of Congress have passed in identical form and have forwarded to the president for signature (p. 67)

Engrossed Bill (p. 62)

a bill that one chamber of Congress has passed and forwarded to the other Chamber (p. 62)

Rule of Lenity (p. 505)

a canon of interpretation based on due process concerns that judges should narrowly interpret penal statutes

Plain Meaning Rule (p. 150)

a canon that allows judges to presume that words in a statute have their "plain," or "ordinary," meaning

Preambles (p. 325)

a component in a bill that often precedes the enacting clause and explains the reason the statute is being enacted; a purpose clause

Filibuster

a delaying tactic used in the Senate to prevent a vote on a bill (p. 61)

Constitutional Avoidance Doctrine

a doctrine that directs judges to avoid an interpretation of a statute that will raise constitutional questions when there is another, reasonable interpretation possible. (p. 214)

Scrivener's Error (p. 210)

a doctrine that permits judges to correct obvious clerical or typographical errors

New Textualism (p. 90)

a form of textualism credited to former Justice Antonin Scalia

Sovereign Immunity (p. 533)

a judge-made doctrine that the federal government, or sovereign, may not be sued without its consent.

Bill

a law that Congress or the President has or is considering but is not yet an act (p. 58)

Slip Laws (p. 310)

a legislative enactment that is published separately and promptly after passage, which can be used and cited in temporary form until it is published in a more permanent form by the Government Printing Office or state equivalent

Bargaining Theory

a legislative process (pluralist) theory that focuses on furthering the compromises that lead to a bill's passage (p. 68)

Public Choice Theory (p. 68)

a legislative process theory that statutes are the result of compromises among legislators and various competing private interest groups

In Pari Materia (p. 256)

a linguistic canon that identifies the statutory material that judges can legitimately look at to discern meaning, including the entire act and other statutes with similar purposes.

Regulation (p. 569)

a rule an agency enacted via its rulemaking procedures

Non-legislative Rule (p. 571)

a rule an agency enacted without using informal or formal rulemaking procedures (non-legislative rulemaking is the process of issuing a non-legislative rule)

Journal Entry Rule (p. 67)

a rule in states that allows judges to determine whether constitutional enactment requirements were met by looking at the bill's journal entry

Enacting Clause

a section of a bill that is statutorily required; Components following enacting clauses are codified; Components preceding enacting clauses are not codified. (p. 311)

Penal Statute (p. 505)

a statute that has a punitive effect

Imaginative Reconstructionism (p. 109)

a theory of interpretation in which a judge would try to imagine what the enacting legislature would have intended had the precise factual problem before the court been raised during the enactment process

Dynamic Interpretation

a theory of interpretation that encourage judges to be flexible and consider what the enacting legislature would have wanted given common day realities (p. 442)

Intentionalism (p. 102)

a theory of statutory interpretation that focuses on finding the specific intent of the enacting legislature

Purposivism (p. 114)

a theory of statutory interpretation that focuses on the purpose of the statute and looks at all sources of meaning

Independent Agency (p. 564)

a type of agency that is independent from the president because it is headed by a multi-member, bi-partisan board, serving terms.

Adjudication

agency process for the formulation of an order - any activity that is not rule-making or investigating; can be very informal or formal (p. 572)

Conference Committee

an ad hoc committee of select senators and representatives who try to resolve differences in bills the House and Senate pass (p. 62)

Executive Agency

an agency that is subject to presidential control for the head serves at the pleasure of the president (p. 564)

Functionalism

an approach the Supreme Court uses in separation of powers cases to balance the inevitable overlap among the branches (p. 23)

Formalism

an approach the Supreme Court uses in separation of powers cases to maintain three distinct branches of government with constitutionally defined powers (p. 20)

Notice and Comment Rulemaking (p. 570)

another name for informal rulemaking required under the administrative procedures act; an agency publishes notice of a proposed rule, then seeks public comment on the rule

Implied Causes of Action and Remedies (p. 549)

causes of action and remedies that are not expressly provided for in the statute, but that the court implies based on the goals of the legislature

Clear Statement Rules

courts require the legislature to make a clear or plain statement when a statute will impact important rights such as federalism, because the court assumes that a legislature would not make such a major change without being absolutely clear (p. 521)

Purpose clauses (p. 451)

express statements of statutory purpose

lexical ambiguity

far more common type of ambiguity that occurs when a word or phrase has multiple meanings. (ex: "suit", "draw", "run", "pen") (p. 192)

Lobbyists (p. 55)

individuals who are generally paid to represent a particular point of view for a specific industry or organization

Chevron's two step deference

judicial deference to agency interpretations of a statute; requires that the court look first to see if Congress has spoken on the precise issue, and then if not, to defer to any reasonable agency interpretation (p. 646-647)

Session Laws (p. 310)

legislative enactments for an annual period that have been bound chronologically; federal session laws can be found in the U.S. STATUTES AT LARGE

structural ambiguity

less common type of ambiguity that occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure. (ex: Tibetan History Teacher could be interpreted as "[Tibetan History] Teacher" or as "Tibetan [History Teacher]") (p. 192)

Extrinsic Sources of Meaning

materials outside of the official act, but within the legislative process that created the act (p. 85)

Specific Absurdity

refers to a statute that is absurd ONLY in the particular situation. (p. 205)

General Absurdity

refers to a statute that is absurd REGARDLESS of the particular situation. (p. 205)

Legislative Rules (p. 569)

rules an agency enacted via informal or formal rulemaking processes (legislative rulemaking is the process of enacting legislative rules)

Linguistic Canons

rules of thumb, or guides, judges use when interpreting statutes (p. 253)

Intrinsic Sources of Meaning (p. 84)

sources of meaning from the official act being interpreted, also called textual sources

Policy-Based Sources of Meaning (p. 85)

sources of meaning that are extrinsic to both the statutory act and the legislative process; generally based on the Constitution or policy considerations

Signing Statements (p. 418)

statements a president or governor issues when a bill is passed, often to impact the law in same way

Executive order

statements from a president or governor directing agencies and officials in the execution of legislatively granted authority (p. 128)

Conflicting statutes

statutes that cannot exist harmoniously (p. 374)

Presentment (p. 63)

the Constitutional requirement that a bill be presented to the president and be signed before it becomes law

Bicameral Passage

the Constitutional requirement that both chambers of Congress pass a bill in identical form before it can become law; also required in almost all states (p. 52)

Golden Rule Exception

the absurdity doctrine; the idea that if interpreting a statute avoid according to its ordinary meaning would lead to absurd results, a court can the ordinary meaning (p. 195)

Last-in-Time Canon (p. 375)

the canon that when two statutes conflict and cannot be harmonized, the last in time controls

Cabinet

the collective heads of the Departments, who have served to guide the president in years past

Rules Committee (p. 59)

the committee in the House or Senate that determines the rules governing debate on proposed bills

Ordinary Meaning (p. 150)

the commonly understood meaning of a word or phrase often arrived at by consulting a dictionary

Preemption (p. 387)

the displacing effect that federal law has on conflicting or inconsistent state law

Delegation Doctrine

the doctrine by which the Supreme Court determines whether intelligible principles sufficiently constrain the power delegated to agencies from Congress (p. 577)

Mischief Rule

the idea that statutes should be interpreted to further their purpose or to limit the mischief the statute was designed to remedy

Legislative Intent, Specific

the intent of the enacting legislature on the specific issue before the court

Committee of the Whole

the largest committee in the House, which is made up of all representatives and was formed to debate proposed bills (p. 60)

Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius

the linguistic canon of negative implication such that the inclusion of one thing means the exclusion of another (p. 302)

Ejusdem Generis

the linguistic canon that general words should be limited to include only things similar in nature to the specific words near the general words (p. 278)

Noscitur a Sociis (p. 269)

the linguistic canon that when a word has more than one meaning, the appropriate meaning should be gleaned from the words surrounding the word being interpreted; generally used when the statute contains a list of words

General Assemblies

the name for state legislatures (p. 52)

Separation of Powers (p. 19)

the notion that the powers of government should be split among the various branches of government

Cloture

the process in which sixty senators agree to defeat a filibuster (p. 62)

Codification

the process of consolidating statutes into subjects, forming a legal code (p. 309)

Contextualism

the process of using the context to determine why the legislature acted or to determine what a statute means (p. 409)

Legislative Intent, General

the purpose of the enacting legislature for enacting a bill

Purpose (p. 451)

the reason the statute was enacted, the mischief that was designed to be remedied, also called the spirit of the law

Single Subject Rule

the rule in most state constitutions that bills may only include one subject

Germaneness Rule (p. 60)

the rule in the house that permits amendments to bills only if the amendments are germane (p. 60)

Enrolled Bill Rule

the rule that once a bill is filed, it is conclusively presumed to have been validly adopted (p. 67)

Administrative Procedures Act

the statute that governs the procedural activities of federal agencies (p. 561)

Legislative History (p. 412)

the written record of deliberations surrounding and preceding a bill's enactment, including committee reports and hearing transcripts, floor debates, recorded votes, conference committee reports, presidential signing and veto messages, etc.

Pluralist Theories (p. 67)

theories of legislative process that focus on the role special interest groups play in setting legislative policy, such as bargaining theory and public choice theory pocket

President Pro Tempore (p. 54)

usually the most senior senator in the majority party

Absurdity doctrine

when interpreting a statute according to its ordinary meaning would lead to absurd results, courts can avoid the ordinary meaning (p. 195)

Ambiguity

when reasonable people understand words to have more than one meaning (p. 181)

Repeal by Implication (p. 379)

when the legislature does not indicate expressly that it is repealing a statute, but the judiciary assumes that the legislature intended to repeal the existing statute, in part or in full, because it cannot exist in harmony with a conflicting statute

Legislative Inaction

when the legislature takes no action in response to a judicial interpretation of a statute