Judging Statutes

In an ideal world, the laws of Congress—known as federal statutes—would always be clearly worded and easily understood by the judges tasked with interpreting them. But many laws feature ambiguous or even contradictory wording. How, then, should judges divine their meaning? Should they stick only to the text? To what degree, if any, should they consult aids beyond the statutes themselves? Are the purposes of lawmakers in writing law relevant?

Some judges, such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin...