Short Circuit 176 | Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

There’s this mysterious word in English that courts love to talk about, the Notorious A-N-D. Does it, in fact, mean “and?” Or does it mean “or?” The correction interpretation of the First Step Act—and a lot of years in prison for a lot of people—ride on the answer. Wesley Hottot explains how the Ninth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit recently disagreed on this fundamental question. And can you sue over an unsolicited text message? Alexa Gervasi tells us what the Fifth Circuit said about this question, including how it relates to a public nuisance.

Transcript: https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Short-Circuit-176_otter-FINAL.pdf

United States v. Garcon, https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201914650.pdf

United States v. Lopez, https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/05/21/19-50305.pdf

Cranor v. 5 Star Nutrition, LLC, https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/19/19-51173-CV0.pdf

Justice Paul Thissen, When Rules Get in the Way of Reason: One judge’s view of legislative interpretation, https://cdn.ymaws.com/mcaa-mn.org/resource/resmgr/files/mcaa_news/J_Thissen_article_in_Bench_a.pdf

Alexa Gervasi, https://ij.org/staff/alexa-gervasi/

Wesley Hottot, https://ij.org/staff/whottot/

Anthony Sanders, https://ij.org/staff/asanders/

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