<Dl> <Dd> When you ask someone "Do you use a cane?" you are not inquiring whether he has hung his grandfather's antique cane as a decoration in the hallway . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> When you ask someone "Do you use a cane?" you are not inquiring whether he has hung his grandfather's antique cane as a decoration in the hallway . </Dd> <P> Constitutional scholar John Hart Ely believed that "strict constructionism" is not really a philosophy of law or a theory of interpretation, but a coded label for judicial decisions popular with a particular political party . </P> <P> In law, strictly literal interpretations of statutes can lead one to logically deduce absurdities, and the Doctrine of Absurdity is that commonsense interpretations should be used in such cases, rather than literal reading of a law or of original intent . The Absurdity doctrine is a doctrine in legal theory, also known as "Scrivener's Error exception"; in which American courts have interpreted statutes contrary to their plain meaning in order to avoid absurd legal conclusions . It has been described as follows: </P>

Who believed in strict interpretation of the constitution