judicial restraint

Cultural  

1. A view, associated with Felix Frankfurter among others, that judges should be reluctant to declare legislative enactments unconstitutional unless the conflict between the enactment and the Constitution is obvious. The doctrine is akin to, but not identical with, narrow construction, and it is the opposite of judicial activism.

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Example Sentences

Speaking for the court, Sutton argued for judicial restraint.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2024

“This faux judicial restraint is judicial obfuscation,” Justice Scalia, who died in 2016, wrote at the time.

From New York Times • Jun. 24, 2022

“We accordingly abide by what has been called a ‘cardinal principle of judicial restraint — if it is not necessary to decide more, it is necessary not to decide more,’” she wrote.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 3, 2022

As Justice Felix Frankfurter, a noted advocate of judicial restraint, explained in 1949, the Framers understood when to be specific, and when to be vague.

From Washington Post • Jun. 4, 2021

The European city simply did not develop with the lack of judicial restraint which characterized metropolitan growth in the United States.

From Elevator Systems of the Eiffel Tower, 1889 by Vogel, Robert M.