Court Opinion

ID: 9427749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:21:46.113883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:09.426575
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
The question whether 10 U. S. C. § 1034 includes a right to circulate petitions is not an easy one for me. I must confess that I think the plain language of the statute and its sparse legislative history slightly favor the Court’s reading that it does not. Nevertheless, I agree with Mr. Justice Stewart’s *379construction of the statute for two reasons. First, in a doubtful case I believe a statute enacted to remove impediments to the flow of information to Congress should be liberally construed. Second, the potentially far-reaching consequences of deciding the constitutional issue1 counsel avoidance of that issue if the “case can be fairly decided on a statutory ground.”2 Mr. Justice Stewart has surely demonstrated that that test is met here. I therefore respectfully dissent.

For the reasons stated by Mr. Justice BreNNAN, I do not consider the constitutional question foreclosed by the Court’s decision in Greer v. Spock, 424 U. S. 828. Nor do I view it as so easy as to justify the novel practice of deciding the constitutional question before addressing the statutory issue. Ante, at 349.

 “Our settled practice ... is to avoid the decision of a constitutional issue if a case can be fairly decided on a statutory ground. ‘If there is one doctrine more deeply rooted than any other in the process of constitutional adjudication, it is that we ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality . . . unless such adjudication is unavoidable.’ Spector Motor Co. v. McLaughlin, 323 U. S. 101, 105. The more important the issue, the more force there is to this doctrine.” University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265, 411-412 (opinion of Stevens, J.) (footnote omitted).