Toolkit for Interpreting Statutory Text

Literalism

Looking at a word and its corresponding definition.

Textualism (or contextualism) (new textualism)

Actual text and the CONTEXT as a whole.

Purposiveism

Legislature's purpose behind it. This includes texts outside of the statute.

Lenity

is used to resolve statutory ambiguities in a criminal defendant’s favor as such, the statute is read and applied narrowly. Although, the strength of this canon is weak because some courts think this canon is dead while others think that it should only be used to break a tie.

Im pari Materia

Something is so closely related that they mean the same thing. is a Latin legal phrase that means "on the same subject" or "in a like manner". It's a principle of statutory construction that requires courts to interpret related laws together to avoid inconsistencies.

Legislative bargain

The legislature has to compromise between values.

Federalism

is used when a statute is interpreted based on how the states used it traditionally. The federalism canon is used under the assumption that Congress is aware of and intends to respect states’ authority over essentially local matters. It can be used in conjunction with the plain statement rule.

Plain Statement Rule

An interpretation is linguistically possible, but we should not read the statute that broadly. Because if they meant it that way then they would have said that!

Plain Meaning Rule

It is clear what is said. There is no reason to go beyond what the text says!

Absurdity Canon

It is absurd no legislature would have meant that. We will interpret what then meant not what they said.

Avoidance Canon

You avoid an interpretation because it would raise a constitutional canon.

Noscitur a sociis Canon

Fixes vagueness by considering the words around it.

Deference Doctrine

To what extent should the judge defer to an administrator.

Im pari Materia Example

Laws about animals, like dog laws and pet laws

Absurdity Canon Example

A statute saying no one can walk on the grass in the park would allow someone for falling on the grass because they had a heart attack. The legislature couldn't possibly have intended this outcome from the statute.

Noscitur a sociis Canon Example

"No person shall transport goods, animals, or persons on a public highway."

Here, if there were a legal dispute over the meaning of the word "animals", noscitur a sociis could be applied. The word "animals" is surrounded by "goods" and "persons", both of which are typically objects or things transported on a highway. Therefore, it's reasonable to infer that "animals" in this context would refer to livestock or other transportable creatures, and not, for example, pets.

In this case, the canon helps clarify the word "animals" by looking at the surrounding words and their likely meanings. It's not about any animal in general, but animals that are treated similarly to goods or persons in a transportation context.

Rule against surplus

Rule against surplus

says that every word of the statute should have a meaning, and that repetition is not needed. Thus, if one interpretation would make it bear no weight at all and it is surplus it should be removed.  

Enactment History

using amendments and changes to a bill during the legislative process. This history is then used to make inferences about what the purpose of the legislature was.

Document History

what people have said about the meaning/purpose of the statute. This includes documents such as statements from bill sponsors, committee reports, presidential signing statements.