Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Fall 2017, Vol. 48, No. 3 | Page 30

On
playground at a religious school. 77 Justice
Ginsburg “was also on the receiving end of
a public lecture by her new colleague.” 78 It
took no time at all for Justice Gorsuch to as-
sume his mentor’s cantankerous and conten-
tious tone. The “cool silver fox” 79 is becom-
ing a garrulous attack dog. I will report back
later on whether this trend continues.
Conclusion
There is much to like and to emulate in
Neil Gorsuch’s writing. His command of co-
hesion techniques to establish coherence
is commendable. We should all strive for a
conversational tone “using words you don’t
need to be a lawyer to understand.” 80
Yet, in my opinion, Gorsuch overuses some
style techniques. If Gorsuch’s popular and
populist writing style prevails, more and more
paragraphs will look like the remainder of
this paragraph. You might wonder why Gor-
such chooses to violate certain core grammar
rules, like the prohibition on sentence frag-
ments. And the thousands of contractions
might make Gorsuch’s style a bit too infor-
mal. But that’s not half as bad as his overuse
of contractions to start sentences. So, in the
end, I agree with Guberman, who summariz-
es Gorsuch’s style this way: “As brilliant and
talented as Judge Gorsuch is, he sometimes
tries just a bit too hard, with results that can
be awkward or even jarring.” 81 You should
gird yourself for thirty or more years of Neil
Gorsuch’s grammatical gimmickry and politi-
cal punditry. Anxiously awaiting Justice Ken-
nedy’s retirement.
____________________
Greg Johnson is Professor of Law and
Director of Legal Writing at Vermont Law
School.
____________________
Brian Porto, The Rhetorical Legacy of Antonin
Scalia, Vermont B. J. 28 (Summer 2017).
2
See, e.g., Adam Liptack, In Judge Gorsuch, an
Echo of Scalia in Philosophy and Style, The New
York Times (January 31, 2017).
3
Linda Greenhouse, Trump’s Life-Tenured Judicial
Avatar, The New York Times (July 6, 2017), available
at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opinion/
gorsuch-trump-supreme-court.html?mcubz=3.
4
Henson v. Santander Consumer USA Inc., ___
U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 1718 (2017); Maslenjak v. Unit-
ed States, ___ U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 1918, 1931
(2017) (Gorsuch, J., concurring); Trinity Lutheran
Church v. Comer, ___ U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 2012,
2025 (2017) (Gorsuch, J., concurring); Perry v. Mer-
it Sys. Prot. Bd., ___ U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 1975, 1988
(2017) (Gorsuch, J. dissenting); Pavan v. Smith, ___
U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 2075, 2079 (2017) (Gorsuch, J.,
dissenting). Justice Thomas joined both dissents
and both concurrences.
5
Gorsuch served on the Tenth Circuit for elev-
en years. Law librarians from a consortium of law
schools have catalogued all of Gorsuch’s opinions
from the Tenth Circuit at The Neil Gorsuch Project,
available at http://library.law.virginia.edu/gorsuch-
project/.
6
Liptak, supra note 2.
7
Wayne Schiess, Justice Gorsuch’s first opinion
shows his style (June 20, 2017), available at http://
sites.utexas.edu/legalwriting/2017/06/20/justice-
gorsuchs-first-opinion-shows-his-style/.
1
30
Associated Press column, Supreme Court nomi-
nee Neil Gorsuch’s writing described as “breezy”
(March 8, 2017), available at https://www.cbsnews.
com/news/supreme-court-nominee-neil-gorsuch-
writing-style-breezy-clever/.
9
Christina Violante, The 4 Wittiest Dissents by
Gorsuch (February 1, 2017), available at https://
www.law360.com/articles/887202/the-4-wittiest-
dissents-by-gorsuch.
10
Ross Guberman, Judge Gorsuch is a gifted writ-
er. He’s a great writer. But is he a “Great Writer”?
Part One: Four Gifts (February 7, 2017), available
at https://www.legalwritingpro.com/blog/judge-
gorsuch-gifts/.
11
Ross Guberman, Judge Gorsuch is a gifted writ-
er. He’s a great writer. But is he a “Great Writer”?
Part Two: Five weak spots (February 14, 2017),
available at https://www.legalwritingpro.com/
blog/judge-gorsuch-the-writer-part-2/.
12
Joe Palazzolo, Supreme Court Nominee Takes
Legal Writing to the Next Level, Dow Jones Institu-
tional News (February 1, 2017), available at https://
www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-nominee-
takes-legal-writing-to-next-level-1485912410.
13
Id.
14
W. World Ins. Co. v. Markel Am. Ins. Co., 677
F.3d 1266, 1267 (10th Cir. 2012).
15
Id. at 1268.
16
A.M. v. Holmes, 830 F.3d 1123, 1169 (10th Cir.
2016).
17
Bustos v. A & E Television Networks, 646 F.3d
762, 762 (10th Cir. 2011) (emphasis in original).
18
TransAm Trucking, Inc. v. Admin. Review Bd.,
U.S. Dep’t of Labor, 833 F.3d 1206, 1215 (10th Cir.
2016) (Gorsuch, J. dissenting).
19
Id. at 1216.
20
Robert Barnes, Gorsuch shows writing style in
unanimous opinion about debt collectors, Wash-
ington Post (June 12, 2017).
21
Id.
22
Henson, 137 S.Ct. at 1720.
23