Judge Selya has fun with vocabulary.

They say that good writers have a way with words. Judge Bruce Selya of the federal First Circuit has a way with obscure words. And thank goodness for that. Although I advocate a preference for plain writing and simple words, plain language is not the first commandment. The first commandment is to be true to yourself—to express your self. (Two-word phrase intentional.) Judge Selya does that, which makes his writing a joy to read.

The other day, Jim Rusten wrote me about a recent opinion by Judge Selya. Jim compiled a list of interesting words in the decision, which you can access here. To read the decision itself, click here for the HTML version, or here for the PDF version.

Prior posts about Judge Selya’s writing are here and here.

Comments

[Stephen R. Diamond]

"The first commandment is to be true to yourself—to express your self."

Hard for most Court of Appeals judges to do, since few write the opinions they sign. Even judges who, like Richard Posner, are good writers. So says Judge Posner in How judges think. Is Judge Selya one of the rare exceptions?

[Ray]

I don’t know, Steve. But his opinions have read the way they do for years, and I assume over that time, he’s gone through dozens of clerks.

[Jerry E. Stephens]

There was a 1992 NY Times article about Judge Selya that perfectly addressed his penchant for the obscure. The article by Burce Margolick has this lead: "Sustained by dictionaries, a judge rules that no word or word play is inadmissible." I once had an opportunity to correspond with Judge Selya about his word and phrase choices. He simply said that they came from his "eclectic" reading and his "peripatetic" travels. But in one later letter to me, he wrote that he appreciated the attention given to his judicial opinions and that it was "reassuring to know that I am not a solitary waif in the wilderness." An apt description from the writer himself. Thanks for this very interesting analysis of one of Judge Selya's more recent opinions.