The acquittal had been greeted as a sign that Egypt's courts can avoid political interference.

The court avoided the larger question of whether sampling is unconstitutional, as Republicans in Congress have long argued.

Under that rule, he said, the courts will avoid interfering with a board's exercise of its "business judgment" when making decisions.

There is one way the court might avoid reaching the constitutional issue in the new case.

Until today, the trial judges had little guidance, because appellate courts avoided taking a position.

The court avoided the question of whether or not brain death, in line with medical science, should amount to legal death.

A settlement would let the court avoid ordering a breakup of a company that has helped drive the growth of the American economy.

The decision also made clear that courts may not avoid free speech questions in obscenity cases just because those questions might be difficult to decide.

This also meant that the court avoided a more far-reaching "look and feel copyright" precedent ruling.

By using the reasonable person standard, the courts instead use an objective tool and avoid such subjective evaluations.