Re: Punctuation and RKBA

jadel wrote:
# On Dec 17, 10:01 am, "chasw" <chas...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
# # The new majority on the SCOTUS is more inclined to respect the original
# # meaning and intent of the 2nd amendment, as expounded in the Federalist
# # Papers, than some modern, tortured interpretation of commas and independent
# # clauses. Most moderns are unaware the Federalist Papers, along with the
# # Declaration of Independence, are part of our constitution ...
#
# Neither the Federalist Papers nor the Declaration have any legal
# force. Cite some case settled on the basis of either. The FP and the
# Declaration certainly influenced the writers of the Constitution, but
# to claim they are a part of it is nonsense.
#
# The comma issue is ambiguous. Comma usage in the 18th C. was a bit
# different- as were the defintions of some things--"high crimes and
# misdemeanors" for example. Absolute constructions set off by commas
# are non-essential to the basic meaning of a sentence, but they can
# explain or modify that meaning.
#
# It isn't a just modern wrangle at all. The people who wrote the
# Constitution quibbled over every jot and tittle. Unlike my students,
# they knew that commas served a useful purpose.
#
# The "meaning and intent" of laws can indeed turn on things like
# punctuation.
#
# The appeal to "original intent" is a smoke screen used by both
# sides. Nobody really knows what the original intentions were, and if
# you could ask the Framers themselves, they'd disagree.
#
# All we have are their words and the punctuation.
#
# J. Del Col
#

But do we have their punctuation? The article claims that there are
different versions of the Constitutions with different numbers of commas.

--


Will the last American please lower the flag, fold it carefully, and put
it away?


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