My Recent Post at ACSblog

I recently wrote a post about Maryland v. Shatzer for ACSblog. It has nothing to do with language, though, so readers of this blog might be uninterested.

Pleading Innocent

I’ve always wondered where the odd phrase to plead innocent comes from. Almost everybody knows that criminal defendants don’t plead innocent; they plead not guilty. But I still encounter the phrase fairly regularly, particular among nonlawyers.

Today’s Garner’s Usage Tip explains the common-sense origin of this phrase:

[N]ewspaper writers live in perpetual fear of the word not either being dropped by a printer or being changed from not to now. Therefore, whenever possible, they shy away from the word not, even at the expense of strict accuracy.

Although I still think to plead innocent is an imprecise, inaccurate phrase, I get a kick out of journalists who editor-proof their copy.

Obama’s Cue Cards

Our Monstrously Evil and Utterly Indecent Legal System

An enormity is something monstrously evil, an outrage and utter violation of all decency. So the jacket copy on Lawrence Friedman’s American Law surprised me:

The proportions of our legal system and the enormity of its social impact beg several questions[.]

(Emphasis added).

This book is no polemic against American law, so I can only presume that the writer meant to use enormousness, which means vastness or immensity. And the proportions of our legal system don’t beg questions; they present questions. More about begging questions here.

Now That’s What I Call a Usage Panel!

At a recent bookfair, I picked up—for one dollar—a copy of the second edition of the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage.

Its all-star usage panel includes:

• Isaac Asimov
• Saul Bellow
• Art Buchwald
• John Ciardi
• Walter Cronkite
• William O. Douglas
• S. I. Hayakawa
• Anthony Lewis
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan
• George Plimpton
• Daniel Schorr
• Barbara Tuchman
• Herman Wouk
• William Zinsser
  

Outstanding!

Appellate Courts Don’t Provide Affirmations

The other day I overheard a lawyer talking about an appellate court’s affirmation of a trial-court ruling. The lawyer must not have known that there’s a big difference between an affirmance and an affirmation.

When an appellate court upholds a lower court’s judgment, that’s an affirmance.

When Stuart Smalley asserts that, gosh darn it, people like him, that's an affirmation.

Hartford Mayor Arranged On Extortion Charge

I thought that the mayor of Hartford would be arraigned today, that he would be brought into court to answer a criminal charge.

But I was wrong. Mayor Perez was instead put into a neat, attractive order, like a bouquet of exquisite flowers.

From the Connecticut Law Tribune:

Hartford Mayor Arranged On Extortion Charge

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez and three others charged in a corruption investigation last week have made a brief appearance before a state judge. Perez, former Hartford state Rep. Abraham Giles, Hartford City Councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson and Farmington businessman Carlos Lopez did not speak Tuesday during their arraignments before Hartford Superior Court Judge Glenn Woods. Perez and Giles are charged with attempted extortion and conspiracy for allegedly trying to extort $250,000 from a real estate developer. They deny the charges. Airey-Wilson is charged with tampering with evidence, and Lopez is charged with three counts of fraudulent voting. They are due back in court on Friday. – Associated Press

(Emphasis added).