Absolutely not.

Don’t listen to her, Blue Book editors!

Keep the Bluebook cumbersome and antiquated. That’s just the way the fedster likes it.

Juris-Jitsu: the art of jurisprudential ass-kicking; the ability to inflict paralyzing verbal/linguistic blows to subdue or disable an opponent in litigation or legal debate.* 

E.g.: Justice Scalia in a ninth-degree black belt in juris-jitsu; Justice Kennedy’s juris-jitsu is weak.

Feel free to create your own “juris-jitsu” sentences in the comments.

T-shirts and other merchandise to follow. :)  

*Copyright © 2008, Fedster.

I am trying to read a page or two of Bryan A. Garner’s “The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style” every day, and I’ve decided to post interesting writing-style tips that I come across here at SA. So, with that said, here is the first tidbit I found useful:

The em dash may suggest drama; the colon may suggest a cause-effect relationship; the semi-colon may suggest that the clauses are of equal importance; parentheses may suggest that what they contain is of lesser importance.

I think this is a fairly accurate description of how many readers interpret these four punctuation marks, and is something we lawyers should keep in mind while crafting our motions/briefs.