{"id":22148,"date":"2014-02-05T15:46:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T20:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=22148"},"modified":"2014-02-05T15:46:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T20:46:12","slug":"the-government-as-a-negative-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2014\/02\/the-government-as-a-negative-label\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Government\u201d as a Negative Label?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"labels-v\"<\/a>As we who teach legal analysis and writing teach students how to make the switch from objective to persuasive writing, we often talk about the little things that students can do to their briefs more persuasive.<\/p>\n

One fairly obvious technique is for the writer to carefully choose how she wants to label the parties. Calling one party \u201cthe Defendant\u201d rather than by his or her given name, for example, tends to de-personalize the defendant. Calling a business entity \u201cthe Company,\u201d \u201cthe Firm,\u201d or \u201cthe Corporation\u201d may trigger for readers certain images or feelings, some of which may be negative. And that may be just what the writer wants if the writer represents a plaintiff alleging a wrong against an impersonal entity. Or, depending on context, maybe those designations are the quickest, easiest way to refer to one of the parties.<\/p>\n

But who knew that \u201cthe Government\u201d would be considered to a label to avoid\u2014by the government itself?\u00a0 In Tennessee, the prosecution filed a motion to in limine to prevent defendant\u2019s counsel from calling it \u201cthe Government.\u201d Said the prosecutor,<\/a> \u201cThe State has noticed in the past few years that it has become commonplace during trials for attorneys for defendants, and especially Mr. Justice [defendant\u2019s counsel], to refer to State’s attorneys as \u2018the Government[.]\u2019 . . . The State believes that such a reference is used in a derogatory way and is meant to make the State’s attorney seem oppressive and to inflame the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defendant\u2019s counsel, Drew Justice<\/a>, argued that, first, courts have often used \u201cthe government\u201d to refer to the prosecution and \u201cit . . . seems doubtful that all these judges are trying to demean prosecutors.\u201d Nonetheless, he continued, such a ban violated the First Amendment.\u00a0 Finally, he argued that should the court ban the use of \u201cthe government,\u201d then he had some requests of his own. \u201cThe Defendant,\u201d he said, clearly has negative connotations. Thus, the defendant should be referred to by his full name, \u201cpreceded by the title \u2018Mister.\u2019 Alternatively, he may be called simply \u2018the Citizen Accused.\u2019 . . . \u2018That innocent man\u2019 would also be acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well, Justice continued, he would rather be called something other than \u201clawyer\u201d or \u201cdefense counsel.\u201d\u00a0 Justice recommended, among other choices, \u201cCaptain<\/i> Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

[T]he Citizen Accused humbly requests an appropriate military title for his own representative, to match that of the opposing counsel. While less impressive than \u201cGeneral,\u201d still, the more humble term seems suitable. After all, the Captain represents only a Citizen Accused, whereas the General represents an entire State.<\/p>\n

To see the rest of \u201cCaptain Justice\u2019s\u201d motion and other suggestions for often-used labels in litigation, look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps not surprisingly, the judge in the case denied the motion.<\/p>\n

Hat tip to 1L Daniel Lopez for sending me the link to the motion.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we who teach legal analysis and writing teach students how to make the switch from objective to persuasive writing, we often talk about the little things that students can do to their briefs more persuasive. One fairly obvious technique is for the writer to carefully choose how she wants to label the parties. Calling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}