Grammatical twist in yet another SCOTUS opinion

[Dennis Baron]

In fact, Breyer's opinion devotes a significant amount of ink to the  
scope of "knowingly" in sentences:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-108.pdf


____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
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Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
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On May 5, 2009, at 7:52 AM, Victor wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Grammatical twist in yet another SCOTUS opinion
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Justice Breyer, in his opinion in the case of identity theft laws
> applying to illegal immigration cases, invoked "ordinary English
> grammar" as the determinant. IMO it's a bit of a stretch to call it
> "ordinary grammar", but that's another story entirely.
>
> A part of the NYT story:
>
>> Justice Stephen G. Breyer, in his opinion for the court, said the  
>> case
> should be decided by applying “ordinary English grammar” to the text  
> of
> the law, which applies when an offender “knowingly transfers,  
> possesses
> or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of  
> another
> person.”
>> The government had argued that the “knowingly” requirement applied
> only to the verbs in question. Justice Breyer rejected that
> interpretation, saying that “it seems natural to read the statute’s  
> word
> ‘knowingly’ as applying to all the subsequently listed elements of the
> crime.”
>> He gave examples from everyday life to support this view. “If we say
> that someone knowingly ate a sandwich with cheese,” Justice Breyer
> wrote, “we normally assume that the person knew both that he was  
> eating
> a sandwich and that it contained cheese.”
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/us/05immig.html
>
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