Supreme Court Preview Podcast

Looking for some legal listening to improve your legal English, expand your knowledge of American Constitutional Law and be in the know about what is coming up this term in the U.S. Supreme Court? You can do no better than the Amicus podcast featuring the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (my former employer). If you do a quick Google search for "Supreme Court Preview 2017 Term" you will find all kinds of previews from various points of view.

The Passive Voice

For my American Studies students, although my law students could benefit from this as well:

I came across a short, concise description of how the passive voice is used, and not used, in English. I have to admit that I found it while trying to understand how the passive voice is used in German, something with which I am still struggling.

The Comma Debate Heads to the Court

Back in December, I wrote about how the question of whether gun ownership is a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The New York Time recently published an excellent guest editorial about the role of the comma in this debate. Yes, I said the role of the comma. You see, part of the problem with the Second Amendment is its odd punctuation. The Second Amendment reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Notice the placement of the commas! It's confusing at best, unintelligible at worst. As the Times piece explains, advocates of gun rights claim the second comma, after "State," endows individuals with the right to bear arms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed with this interpretation, and struck down a Washington D.C. law attempting to regulate gun ownership. Other advocates talk about "absolute phrases" and "main clauses;" things that would make a grammarian proud but leave the rest of us perplexed.

The author of the Times piece makes an interesting claim about how commas were used at the time the Second Amendment was written, and essentially claims the Court should ignore the commas altogether. Give the article a quick read to see how comma placement can cause headaches, especially when the commas were placed by people who use different grammar rules than we use today.

Then v. Than

Knowing when to use "then" or "than" isn't one of the recurring problems I see in students' writing. Nevertheless, it's always helpful to receive a little refresher and the WikiHow How-to-Manual has a short little piece that may be of assistance.