Sure, you can split an infinitive, but this is ridiculous.

This blog’s official position on split infinitives is that they’re okay. The Star Trek catch phrase — “to boldly go” — is A-okay with us. But please, please don’t use your freedom from the no-split-infinitives superstition to write a sentence like this:

Is it kosher for a law enforcement agency to, pursuant to a lawfully granted search warrant, search your Gmail account without telling you?

I found this on, of all places, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. As my high-school Spanish and Latin teacher, Fr. Gregor, would say, “Et tu, Brute?” The problem isn’t the split; it’s that the split is a chasm — a seven-word something-or-other phrase interrupting another phrase.

Comments

[NJ]

LOL. It's a slippery slope, isn't it?

[cfoster]

I read that too! It is especially jarring because it is the first sentence of the post. Instead of carrying me into the story, it had me pondering how I would rewrite it.

[Ray]

You could just move the “to”: “Is it kosher for a law enforcement agency, pursuant to a lawfully
granted search warrant, to search your Gmail account without telling you?” Probably more editing is in order (e.g. “May a law-enforcement agency, acting under a search warrant, search your Gmail account without telling you?”). But moving the “to” would fix the problem pointed out by this post.