"The primary check on the courts," he said, "has always been judicial self-restraint."

There exists a strong presumption of legislative constitutionality, as the Supreme Court of India has expressed a need for "judicial self-restraint and extreme caution" when determining whether legislation unreasonably restricts a constitutional right.

Despite those constitutional linkages, however, the avoidance doctrine is most commonly classified as a prudential rule of judicial self-restraint.

What makes Chief Justice Rehnquist's analysis vexing is his judicial self-restraint.

Since the conservatives are also younger, he sees the drop-off as "an indication of judicial self-restraint," and, thus, "a healthy development."

By contrast, the United States Supreme Court generally exercises judicial self-restraint.

Such a strict level of scrutiny is commonly applied by courts where matters of public expenditure or government policy are involved, and evidently reflects a "high-water mark of judicial self-restraint".

As Professor Alexander Bickel points out, however, Atherton Mills was "a case of quite conventional mootness, hardly apt as an illustration of judicial self-restraint in constitutional litigation."

He played a pivotal role in pulling the Supreme Court away from the judicial self-restraint that had been the reigning doctrine of liberals up till then.

To the Editor: David Margolick's association of footnotes in Supreme Court opinions with lack of judicial self-restraint (At the Bar, Jan. 4) misunderstands both.