Fri August 17, 2012 When Pronouncing A Case Is Harder Than 'Roe
V. Wade' Originally published on Fri August 17, 2012 4:03 pm
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR
News. I'm Melissa Block. Now, a story about Supreme Court cases
and how you pronounce their names. Some are easy enough, like
Roe V. Wade, but others aren't so clear cut. Is it Bachy or
Bachy, Padilla or Padilla? Many a case name has been mangled, so
as we hear from NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg,
law professor Eugene Fidell set out to set the record straight.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Fidell and his students at Yale Law
School have published a pronunciation dictionary of Supreme
Court cases. They've examined all of the case names going back
to the beginning of the Republic and they've figured out - or
tried to figure out - the correct pronunciations. EUGENE FIDELL:
It's been a marvelous sort of cook's tour of American legal
history and also very reaffirming of the melting pot nature of
our country because you see