The Constitutional Avoidance Canon of Statutory Construction

Attorney Gunnar P. Seaquist authored a paper on the Constitutional Avoidance Canon of Statutory Construction for the State Bar of Texas Litigation Section Report, The Advocate, Vol. 71, Summer 2015. In the paper, Mr. Seaquist discusses the foundation of the canon, the substantive provisions of the constitutional avoidance doctrine, and the application and practice criticisms of the avoidance doctrine.