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Do as I say, not as I do

From the oral arguments on Tuesday of this week in the Supreme Court:

MR. BARNHOUSE: The lawsuit would be -- the lawsuit itself would be property, but the -- but any recovery would not be property until it became choate, until there was an amount of money assigned to it.

JUSTICE SCALIA: There is no such adjective -- I know we have used it, but there is no such adjective as "choate." There is "inchoate," but the opposite of "inchoate" is not "choate."

MR. BARNHOUSE: All right.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Any more than the -- I don't know.
(Laughter.)

MR. BARNHOUSE: Well, I'm wrong on the -- on the -

JUSTICE SCALIA: Exactly. Yes. It's like "gruntled."

MR. BARNHOUSE: But I think I am right on the law, Your Honor.

Scalia was apparently trying to make the point that some people mistakenly assume the opposite of ?disgruntled? is ?gruntled.? Well, Josh Blackmun says gruntled is a word:

Oxford English Dictionary Confirms, gruntled seems to be the opposite of disgruntled.
Definition: Pleased, satisfied, contented.

A law professor responds:

Gruntled is indeed in the dictionary, as the opposite of disgruntled. But it?s pretty clearly not idiomatic, as a Google search shows. So it?s not a mistake to assume that there is a word ?gruntled? that?s the opposite of ?disgruntled.? But it is a mistake to assume that there is such a word in common usage, and especially in common serious usage (since ?gruntled? as the opposite of ?disgruntled? has a humorous connotation, I think).

Anyway, a bit closer to home, Dan Christensen has a couple interesting posts about Zachariah P. Zachariah, a top Republican fundraiser.

And of course, everyone is talking and writing about Scott Rothstein and his inner sanctum and intercom and autographs and on and on and on. I find the whole mob mentality a bit sickening. Here's my Friday morning question to you all: Should Scott Rothstein get a bond when he gets arrested?

A bunch of people have been sending me this video, which is unbelievable:

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on November 06, 2009 (boomark / email).