ASHWANDER RULES
Ashwander rules. A set of principles outlining the U.S. Supreme Court’s policy of deciding
constitutional questions only when necessary, and of avoiding a constitutional question if the case
can be decided on the basis of another issue. • These rules were outlined in Justice Brandeis’s
concurring opinion in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288, 56 S.Ct. 466
(1936). They include the policy that the court should not decide a constitutional question in a
friendly suit, should not anticipate a question of constitutional law, should not create a rule of
constitutional law that is broader than that called for by the facts of the case, should not decide a
constitutional issue if the case can be decided on another ground, should not rule on the
constitutionality of a statute unless the plaintiff is harmed by the statute or if the plaintiff has
accepted the benefits of the statute, and should not rule on the constitutionality of an act of
Congress without first analyzing whether the act can be fairly construed in a way that would avoid
the constitutional question. — Also termed Brandeis rules. [Cases: Constitutional Law 46(1).
C.J.S. Constitutional Law §§ 88–89, 92.][Blacks Law 8th]