Virginia Supreme Court: Lee statue in Richmond to come down

[David Lockmiller]

(09-02-2021 04:51 PM)AussieMick Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 12:16 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Interesting.
....

Yes,indeed.
I Googled the meaning of "Commonwealth " and it can obviously be used with a capital C or small c.
My opinion is that used with a small "c" I can understand, but not agree with, the legal argument. ... but used with a capital "C" suggests the legal people are allowing their political ideas to influence decisions or at least made a grammatical error.
Just my opinion.

A Sharp Divide at the Supreme Court Over a One-Letter Word

NYTimes April 29, 2021

In an immigration ruling that scrambled the usual alliances, the justices differed over the significance of the article “a.”

The law [in] “a notice to appear” for a deportation hearing list[s] various kinds of information, including the nature of the proceeding and when and where it will take place.

Justice Gorsuch [wrote] that the court’s job was to unearth the meaning of the statute before it.

“If, in the process of discerning that meaning, we happen to consult grammar and dictionary definitions — along with statutory structure and history — we do so because the rules that govern language often inform how ordinary people understand the rules that govern them.”

He added that it was only fair to hold the government to the standards it imposes on ordinary people. “If the government finds filling out forms a chore, it has good company,” he wrote. “The world is awash in forms, and rarely do agencies afford individuals the same latitude in completing them that the government seeks for itself today.”

“At one level,” Justice Gorsuch wrote, “today’s dispute may seem semantic, focused on a single word, a small one at that. But words are how the law constrains power.”

Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan formed the majority. Justice Gorsuch’s wrote the majority opinion in the case, Niz-Chavez v. Garland, No. 19-863.