Damon Root on Chief Justice Roberts’ Constitutional Avoidance in Bond v. United States

Two
years ago, when Chief Justice John Roberts led the Supreme Court in
upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, he justified his decision in terms of judicial
restraint. “If there are two possible interpretations of a
statute,” Roberts wrote, “and one of those interpretations violates
the Constitution, the courts should adopt the interpretation that
allows the statute to be upheld.”

Roberts then proceeded to uphold Obamacare by adopting what he
called a “saving construction” of the health care law. As
Reason Senior Editor Damon Root reports, Chief Justice
Roberts performed another act of constitutional avoidance this
week in his ruling on the federalism case Bond v. United
States.

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