Tuesday
Magic words
Law students, lawyers, and other people who wisely spend their time reading judicial opinions notice that most dissents end with the phrase, "I respectfully dissent." However, I've recently noticed that this is not the case for all dissents. Some simply say, "I dissent." I've been wondering a) if this is intentional (the Judge or Justice means to note their lack of respect) b) if the content of these dissents is different from dissents which do include the word "respectfully," c) whether or not dissents which fail to include the word "respectfully" are less predictive of future doctrinal paths then dissents which do include the word. While I started thinking about this as something amusing, I'm now thinking that there might be a paper topic here, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I of course have not done a preemption check, so I'd even appreciate the thought "You're obviously not familiar with the literature in this area, get a clue." Also, I'll add cites to two "disrespectful dissents" later today, I don't have my books handy right now.
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