absurdity doctrine
Defined in 1 dictionary — Case Law
Definitions from Case Law
From 282 U.S. 55 - Crooks v. Harrelson · 1930Most cited · 1,196 citing opinions
the principle is to be applied to override the literal terms of a statute only under rare and exceptional circumstances... to justify a departure from the letter of the law upon that ground, the absurdity must be so gross as to shock the general moral or common sense