{"id":6528,"date":"2022-07-10T23:50:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T03:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/?page_id=6528"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:13:10","slug":"how-statutory-interpretation-contributes-to-democratic-decline-and-what-congress-can-do-to-fix-it","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/submit\/glj-online\/glj-online-vol-110\/how-statutory-interpretation-contributes-to-democratic-decline-and-what-congress-can-do-to-fix-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How Statutory Interpretation Contributes to Democratic Decline and What Congress Can Do to Fix It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em>The Supreme Court\u2019s statutory interpretation jurisprudence is weakening democracy in the United States by reducing the ability of the federal government to tackle major issues of national concern. Because legislating in the modern American political environment is difficult, Congress has adopted or adapted various procedural mechanisms under its Article I powers to pass major legislation. The Supreme Court\u2019s statutory interpretation doctrines, however, have failed to keep pace with these procedural developments. As a result, the Court\u2019s interpretive methods actively inhibit Congress\u2019s ability to govern by discouraging common and necessary procedural techniques like leadership drafting and reconciliation. This Note examines the Court\u2019s statutory interpretation doctrines and their negative effect on modern legislating and state capacity through the Court\u2013Congress dialogue. It also recommends several possible legislative remedies, like funding enhanced legislative education and a judicial \u201cOffice of Legislative Research,\u201d to help courts better interpret statutes and reverse the decline in American state capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2022\/07\/Jonas-Statutory-Interpretation.pdf\"><em>How Statutory Interpretation Contributes to Democratic Decline and What Congress Can Do to Fix It<\/em><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court\u2019s statutory interpretation jurisprudence is weakening democracy in the United States by reducing the ability of the federal government to tackle major issues of national concern. Because legislating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8284,"featured_media":0,"parent":842,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-6528","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6528"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6539,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6528\/revisions\/6539"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}