State v. Wiederien

I respectfully dissent. The majority declares the existence of an ambiguity in the statute based upon two possible interpretations, and concludes we must adopt one interpretation over the other because the other interpretation would render the statute unconstitutional. First, this approach is based on the false premise that the interpretation according to the plain language of the statute would be unconstitutional. Second, as a method of statutory interpretation, it fails to consider other interpretive aids and fails to scrutinize the language of the statute to reveal the intent of our…