Sheldon
Senior Member
- Apr 2, 2010
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That point has been addressed ad nauseum in this thread, iFail.I didn't pick the tense. The people who wrote it did. They could have said the government of the United States which refers to the federal government which but they said 'them' which refers to the individual states that compose the union. Why would they not be precise in a legal document? How many lawyers do you know write a legal document in such a way to substitute functional language for fancy language?
They don't because they know they will have to go to court one day so they use precise language
so it can be interpret the way they want it to be interpreted it.
The first half of that sentence contradicts the second half. Precise language is language not meant to be interpreted however someone wants to interpret it!