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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The Appellate Practice section of the Michigan State Bar has an EMail group, and a discussion arose which actually had some entertainment value. A little background: in recent years, certain Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court have subscribed to the textualist approach to the judicial interpretation of statutes; that is, they tend to decline any opportunity to construe statutory language in other than its strictest literal meaning, regardless of evidence of contrary legislative intent or of absurd results. This is yet another round in a very old tension between competing approaches to statutory interpretation, but one which led to the following exchange, which has at least the merit of humor:
Judge Learned Hand once observed: "[t]here is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally." Guiseppi v. Walling, 144 F.2d 608, 624 (2nd Cir 1944), aff'd sub nom, Gemsco v. Walling, 324 U.S. 244 (1945). I wonder what our current Michigan Supreme Court would think of Judge Hand's remark.
It depends, Stu. Do you think they would read it literally?
Well did he "observe" or did he "write" it? Actually I suppose he might have handwritten it (but then again, he may have printed) or of course he could have dictated it then had it transcribed by another person, perhaps his secretary (in which case he would have "said" it). And when Judge Hand wrote (or printed or dictated or otherwise put forth) those words, did he mean "misread" or did he mean "read", because later he says (well, writes, or types or dictates)....
Ahhh ~ the rousing fun we have!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Sparteye: I always thought "Learned Hand" was a marvelous name for a highly regarded jurist, even after I found out his first name was pronounced "Larned". How about giving us some samples of the passages that could be interepreted in different ways?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Judge Learned Hand once observed:
If you want to get literal, I, also, have observed the very same thing. Right there in your post, in green, I observed it. With my own eyes.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Posts: 322 |
no wonder the wheels of justice turn so slowly
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sparteye:
So being a textual deviate is important to a Michigan Supreme Court Justice?
TEd
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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So being a textual deviate is important to a Michigan Supreme Court Justice?
Almost. Not all of them are textual.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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How about giving us some samples of the passages that could be interepreted in different ways?
Sure. It might take me a couple of days to put examples together, but I'll get to it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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One of my favorites is:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I can't see how the NRA gets the courts to go along with the idea that any asshole is entitled to have an assault rifle. In colonial days, the government did not supply weapons. The founding fathers meant to ensure availability of a "well regulated militia" not private survivalists.
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