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Federal Courts, Overbreadth, And Vagueness: Guiding Principles For Constitution Challenges To Uninterpreted State Statutes, Mark L. Rienzi, Stuart Buck

Scholarly Articles

When a federal court is asked to declare an uninterpreted state law to be unconstitutionally overbroad or vague, it faces several tensions. On one side, the overbreadth and vagueness doctrines urge the court to strike down the statute on its face. On the other side, the related doctrines of constitutional avoidance, narrowing interpretations, abstention and certification all urge the court to find some way to save the statute at least as to some applications. But because of the cardinal principle that federal courts are not the final authority on the interpretation of state law, many federal courts err on the …