Kelley v. Bennett

I

“If there is one doctrine more deeply rooted than any other in the process of constitutional adjudication, it is that we *1334ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality ... unless such adjudication is unavoidable.” Spector v. McLaughlin, 323 U.S. 101, 103, 65 S.Ct. 152, 153, 89 L.Ed. 101 (1944). Here we are presented with a case in which the avoidance of a constitutional question is not only possible, it is required by the standing doctrine applicable to racial gerrymandering, or Shaw, claims brought under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment, ■ as announced by the…