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“Words are the building blocks of the law. If we aren’t fastidious with language it dilutes the effectiveness and clarity of the law.”
That’s according to the current Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. as cited by LexTalk, a community of lawyers and legal professionals facilitated by LexisNexis.
The entry introduced an infographic titled, “9 Writing Styles Epitomized by Current Sitting SCOTUS Justices.” It’s drawn from a variety of publicly available citations about how the Justices use the language – some of which are listed below.
According to the infographic, Chief Justice Roberts aims for “clarity” while Justice Scalia might have an extended acute affinity for “judicially brainstormed” adverbs. It also indicates an element of caution, where Justice Sotomayor, for example, is a “careful speaker” and Justice Kagan a very thorough reader.
The infographic, embedded nearby, is this week’s Friday Share and is also freely available on SlideShare. Here are a few links to the references cited in the infographic:
- WSJ: Why Adverbs, Maligned by Many, Flourish in the American Legal System
- New Republic: Antonin Scalia Is the Supreme Court’s Greatest Writer
- New York Times: Keep the Briefs Brief, Literary Justices Advise
- Politico: Sotomayor: I struggled with English
- ABC News: Winery Reacts to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Impromptu Endorsement
- CNN: Samuel Alito Fast Facts
- Business Insider: 6 writing tips from a sitting Supreme Court justice
(click here or infographic for higher resolution)
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Photo credit: Flickr, Tim Sackton, Supreme Court in Bloom (CC BY-SA 2.0)