cardinal principle of statutory construction
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 301 U.S. 1 - National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. · 1937Most cited · 4,480 citing opinions
The cardinal principle of statutory construction is to save and not to destroy. We have repeatedly held that as between two possible interpretations of a statute, by one of which it would be unconstitutional and by the other valid, our plain duty is to adopt that which will save the act.
How often courts cite the case defining “cardinal principle of statutory construction”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “cardinal principle of statutory construction” — 4,464 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.