Specific Application
There are at least two ways a law might be attacked for being unconstitutionally vague:
- When a law does not specifically enumerate the practices that are either required or prohibited. In this case, the ordinary citizen does not know what the law requires. Also see Coates v. Cincinnati.
- When a law does not specifically detail the procedure followed by officers or judges of the law. As a guard, a law must particularly detail what officers are to do, providing both for what they must do and what they must not do. Judges must, under the doctrine, have a clear understanding of how they are to approach and handle a case.
Read more about this topic: Void For Vagueness
Famous quotes containing the words specific and/or application:
“I recognize in [my readers] a specific form and individual property, which our predecessors called Pantagruelism, by means of which they never take anything the wrong way that they know to stem from good, honest and loyal hearts.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word “human.””
—Suzanne Lafollette (1893–1983)