Judge Selya’s Latest Sideline
posted by Frank Pasquale
Judge Selya is the guest wordsmith on Wordsmith.org. Here’s part of his apologia pro vita sesquipedalia:
When I was fortunate enough to receive an appointment to the federal bench, I saw an opportunity to attempt to change the drabness of the prose in which judicial opinions historically have been couched. “Legal language” tends to be both stiff and prosaic, not to mention dense. Thus, if court opinions can be thought of as word pictures, many opinions over the years can be characterized as word pictures painted in various shades of gray. I thought then — and still believe — that interesting language and sound jurisprudence are not mutually exclusive. My opinions, therefore, tend to be word pictures painted in less somber colors — sometimes even pastels or an occasional touch of puce.
Like a nor’easterly haboob, Judge Selya is sweeping away the mundane to make room for a chiarascuro (if obscuro) approach to language.
August 1, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Posted in: Weird
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