Briefs

I’ve written a number of briefs that have drawn on ideas and methods from linguistics. The links below will take you to those briefs, or (if you’d prefer) to a short writeup about the case, which will also include links to the brief and other information.

  • New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. City of New York (U.S. Supreme Court)
    Second Amendment; word & phrase meaning
    Brief of Neal Goldfarb as Amicus Curiae in Support of Respondent, Arguing that as to the Second Amendment Issue, the Petition Should Be Dismissed as Improvidently Granted.
    (brief; see the corpus analysis on which the brief was based here; additional information here)
  • University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar (U.S. Supreme Court)
    Title VII retaliation; word meaning.
    Amicus brief on behalf of the Washington Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, and of a number or employment litigators.
    (brief; see my post on the case here)
  • FCC v. AT&T, Inc. (U.S. Supreme Court)
    Freedom of Information Act; word meaning.
    Amicus brief on behalf of Project On Government Oversight, the Brechner Center on Freedom of Information, and Tax Analysts.
    (brief; see my posts about the case here and here)
    Coverage: Ben Zimmer in The Atlantic; Language Log
  • Flores Figueroa v. United States (U.S. Supreme Court)
    Aggravated identity theft; scope of adverbial modification.
    Amicus brief on behalf of linguistics professors.
    (brief; writeup)
  • United States v. Hayes (U.S. Supreme Court)
    Misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; various linguistic issues.
    Amicus brief on behalf of professors of linguistics and cognitive science.
    (brief; writeup on the way)
  • Rodearmel v. Clinton (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; special 3-judge court)
    Eligibility of Hilary Clinton to serve as Secretary of State; the semantics of the future perfect tense.
    Amicus brief on behalf of linguistics professors.
    (brief; writeup on the way)