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79 Tenn. L. Rev. 687 (2011-2012)
The Elements of Constitutional Style: A Comprehensive Analysis of Punctuation in the Constitution

handle is hein.journals/tenn79 and id is 699 raw text is: THE ELEMENTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL STYLE: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF PUNCTUATION IN THE CONSTITUTION DAVID S. YELL[N* I. IN TRODUCTION ............................................................................... 688 I1. THE EXISTING DISCOURSE ON CONSTITUTIONAL PUNCTUATION.. 692 A. Taking Text and Structure Seriously ....................................... 692 B. Punctuation as a Straw Man ................................................... 697 C. The Principled Denial of Unambiguous Punctuation ............. 701 D. The Incompleteness of the Current Literature ........................ 704 III. FINDING A METHODOLOGY FOR EXPLORING CONSTITUTIONAL PUN CTUA TION ................................................................................ 705 A. Does Punctuation Matter at All? ............................................. 705 B. W hich Constitution? ................................................................ 706 C. Building a Methodology for Studying Constitutional P unctuation ............................................................................. 7 10 IV. PARSING THE CONSTITUTION ......................................................... 713 A. The Marks of the Constitution ................................................. 713 B. Analyzing Constitutional Punctuation in Context ................... 719 C. Addressing Difficult Questions: Parsing Seemingly Erroneous C onstructions .......................................................................... 73 1 D. Other Problematic Provisions ................................................. 738 V. TEXT AND INTERPRETATION .......................................................... 744 A. Further Interpretive Strategies ................................................ 744 B. D ealing with Amendments ....................................................... 748 V I. C ON CLU SION .................................................................................. 750 V II. A PPEN D IX .......................................................................................... 75 1 * Associate, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Georgetown Law Scholar, J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2011; MSc in Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2005; B.A., Colgate University, 2004. I am particularly grateful to Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz and Michael B. de Leeuw for their helpful comments. I would also like to thank Thea Cohen, John Grimm, Allison Meredith, and my parents, Paul and Susan Yellin, as well as Clark Milner and the editors and staff of the Tennessee Law Review for their help with this Article. The content of this Article is entirely the author's and does not represent the views of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

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