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U.S. Supreme Court

Scalia Airs Pet Peeves at Texas Bar Meeting

Posted Jun 29, 2009 8:14 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia warned lawyers to avoid Latin words, legal jargon and clichés in a meeting of the State Bar of Texas on Friday.

Scalia said lawyers writing briefs should be sparing in their use of italics, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. "If you’re constantly italicizing words, it sort of reads like a high school girl’s diary," he said.

And during oral arguments, lawyers should avoid words they can’t pronounce, Scalia said. "You’re inclined to think this person is not the sharpest pencil in the box," Scalia said. "I’ve listened to lawyers who have sent five kids to college on nuclear power and still can’t say the name right. It’s nuclear. Nuclear."

More advice from Scalia: Keep sentences short and clear: "Just make it simple and tell us your point. Your job is to make a complex case simple, not a simple case complex."

Scalia spoke with legal writing guru Bryan Garner, who co-wrote a book with the Supreme Court justice called Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges. Scalia and Garner spoke with the ABA Journal in an interview published in May.

Additional coverage:

Dallas Morning News: “Antonin Scalia advises lawyers on effective legal writing in Dallas”

Texas Lawyer: “Scalia Discusses Conjunctions, Contractions and Pet Peeves at Texas Bar Event”

Comments

1.

Charis P
Jun 29, 2009 9:29 AM CST

Perhaps all those attorneys mispronouncing the word nuclear were doing so on purpose in homage to the eloquence of our former commander-in-chief who publicly butchered the English language in general, and the word nuclear in particular, for the prior 8 years.

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2.

sam
Jun 29, 2009 11:21 AM CST

Comrade Obama isn’t any better.  Obama butchers the English language worse than King George did.  Obama speaks at about a 5th grade level when he isn’t reading from a telepromter.

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3.

B. McLeod
Jun 29, 2009 11:47 PM CST

Sam, it is because he wants you to be able to understand him.

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4.

jbolaw
Jun 30, 2009 1:27 PM CST

Then why is he speaking above Sam’s level of comprehension?

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5.

B. McLeod
Jun 30, 2009 1:45 PM CST

Turning back to the main story, does anyone else think it’s kind of creepy that Scalia has apparently been reading high school girls’ diaries?

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6.

Jim
Jul 1, 2009 6:07 AM CST

Charis, my recollection is that former President Jimmy Carter, who was actually IN THE NAVY NUCLEAR PROGRAM, coiuldn’t pronounce the word either.

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7.

Donald
Jul 1, 2009 6:26 AM CST

I concur with Jim.  Jimmy Carter used to pronounce it as nuculear, with a distince ‘u’ sound in the middle.  W did it also.  Perhaps it’s a southern thing (or a Texan/Georgian thing).  As to the article, I agree that keeping it simple is best, but sometimes that just isn’t possible.

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8.

Bill
Jul 1, 2009 6:29 AM CST

Jimmy Carter never said “nuclear” right - and he was in the Navy’s nuclear submarine program.

Amazing how just about every story here degrades after about the second or third comment into somebody’s politicized ranting. 

And of course, anyone who disagrees with your personal favorite political figure obviously is just stupid.  Enough with the ad hominems already.  Sheesh, grow up people.  People are allowed to criticize the president.  The left certainly did more than its fair share during 8 years of “smirking chimp” and “village idiot” Bush, so now it’s the right’s turn to toss sobriquets at Our Dear Leader.

Back to the point of the story here, after our detour into political sniping - Scalia is right.  I can’t believe some of the writing I see, in some cases from *partners* in a very big and well-known firm.  And I have watched several painful oral arguments at the state supreme court and local federal courts.  Amazing that some of those guys actually made it that far and ended up before those judges.

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9.

barbara res
Jul 1, 2009 6:41 AM CST

To number 5.  I didn’t think it was creepy so much as sexist.  What’s in a teenage boys diary?  Anything that would belong in a SCOTUS brief or argument?

What I laugh at is how everyone is supposed to know all this stuff, but lawyers just cannot avoid trying to impress with big words and long sentences.

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10.

KJ
Jul 1, 2009 7:18 AM CST

Feedback is a gift.  We should all enjoy and heed it.

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11.

Dan Waugh
Jul 1, 2009 7:19 AM CST

There are two well-established pronunuciations for “nuclear”, and either (EE-ther or AYE-ther) is appropriate for use in oral argument.  Scalia should reserve his ire for actual errors, such as treating the words “data” and “media” as though they were singular.

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12.

B. McLeod
Jul 1, 2009 7:29 AM CST

A good question, Barbara.  Thinking back to when I was a teenager (some time ago now), the guys in the class didn’t do the “diary” thing.  Many of the girls did, but it was something they tended to treat as very private, sharing their entries only with their closest friends, if at all.

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13.

Jim S.
Jul 1, 2009 8:14 AM CST

If Nino Scalia allows himself to be swayed by matters of style or his personal opinion as to whether an attorney is the “sharpest pencil in the box,” he has no business being on the Supreme Court.

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14.

KJ
Jul 1, 2009 9:04 AM CST

To 13 - But he is on the SC and I think it behooves us as officers of the court to be the best and if a judge is telling you what he likes and does not like its his prerogative.  When you are on the bench we will be subject to your idiosyncrasies as well.

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15.

R
Jul 1, 2009 9:31 AM CST

Re #8: “Ad hominems”? Isn’t that exactly the type of unnecessary Latinalia that Scalia wants us to avoid?

I don’t like that phrase anyway - always makes me think I’m reading from a South Texas cookbook: “Add hominy. Stir, season to taste, and serve.”

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16.

Robert DiGrazia
Jul 1, 2009 10:09 AM CST

KJ (#14) is right.  That is because we have a government of men, not laws.

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17.

emjaycee
Jul 1, 2009 5:36 PM CST

Re: #11 (Dan Waugh):  There is only one correct way to pronounce “nuclear”—and that is the way it’s spelled.  “Nucular” is just plain wrong.  An atom does not have a “nuculus”. As for the plurality of words like “data” and “media”, they are collective nouns and therefore it’s not unreasonable to use them as singular forms.  For example, most people have many hairs on their heads, but they do not refer to their hair in the plural form.  “My hair are really frizzy today!”... I think not.  And especially in the case of “data”, the word means “information”, which is always singular.  So there.  (To quote Mr Scalia.)

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