An analysis of Judge Sotomayor's legal writing style

At last, you say, a post that's actually about writing.  And not just any kind of writing, mind you, but honest-to-goodness legal writing. 

Maybe I've just grown tired of bashing Twitter.

Anyway, the Blog of the LegalTimes is reporting on a panel discussion at Georgetown University Law Center during which a D.C. practitioner and a Georgetown professor, respectively, offered the following critique of Judge Sotomayor's judicial opinion writing style:

[The DC practitioner] described Sotomayor's opinions as 'thorough, long, and unimaginative' because of her tendency to walk through every step of her reasoning. He said her writing shows a 'slavish attention' to precedent and to statutory interpretation.

It's a style that Susan Bloch, a Georgetown law professor who was on the panel, said might be attributed to Sotomayor's status as a pioneering Hispanic woman in the judiciary. 'I think it comes from being a first and having people ready to trip you up,' Bloch said.

Read the full post here.

Hat tip to Above the Law.

I am the scholarship dude.

(jbl)