Law Commons^™

What Congress Knows And Sometimes Doesn't Know, Muriel Morisey Spence

University of Richmond Law Review

It is a striking feature of the legislative process that Congress is neither required to articulate reasons for its actions nor subject to constitutional challenge merely on the ground that its choices are uninformed. The Constitution contains a variety of procedural rules for enacting legislation. It also requires that statutes conform to a number of substantive requirements. But Congress has traditionally enjoyed wide latitude in deciding whether and to what extent it bases decisions on policy-relevant knowledge or articulates the factual foundations for its actions. Until recently, even when evaluating statutes under close judicial scrutiny, the Supreme Court has tended …