A court has the power to strike down laws for a variety of reasons. Only CRIMINAL laws tend to be held to the standard of review you are referring to. A few torts will be as well (for example Assault or Battery civil laws.) But generally to be more accurate you would need to say that the law CAN be struck down if the INTENDED CLASS is able to neither determine its meaning NOR guess it from their experience. Courts will do anything they can to uphold a statute.
BUT the above discussion is both correct and incorrect. A trial court can strike down a law that has not previously been ruled on by a higher court. So if the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on it no other court in the country can do anything about it ever. (more or less. They might rule around it or strike it down on different grounds.) If the U.S. Supreme court hasn't ruled on it then the court is free. It is more complicated than that because the relation between state and federal courts is being ignored here.
For the most part laws are only struck down for being unconstitutional for one reason or another. You are referring to when a law is "unconstitutionally vague."
Finally - The American Common Law tradition specifically comes from English Common Law. Continental Europe used, and still uses, the Civil Code system which is based on Roman and then Napoleonic Codes.
Keep history in mind. The contractor/employee laws are by-products of the New Deal and related periods. They are results of the need to PROTECT employees and keep employers from abusing them.
ynniv - you got him all wrong. He said "Extremes in wealth are not compatible with a stable free society." Could he be any clearer? Everything you said agrees with that.
BUT the above discussion is both correct and incorrect. A trial court can strike down a law that has not previously been ruled on by a higher court. So if the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on it no other court in the country can do anything about it ever. (more or less. They might rule around it or strike it down on different grounds.) If the U.S. Supreme court hasn't ruled on it then the court is free. It is more complicated than that because the relation between state and federal courts is being ignored here.
For the most part laws are only struck down for being unconstitutional for one reason or another. You are referring to when a law is "unconstitutionally vague."
Finally - The American Common Law tradition specifically comes from English Common Law. Continental Europe used, and still uses, the Civil Code system which is based on Roman and then Napoleonic Codes.