Clearly, justices don't observe ban on the word 'clearly'
Legal writing instructors may insist there’s no need to use the word “clearly” to emphasize that a point is clear, but some people aren’t getting the message.
A search for the term “clearly” in U.S. Supreme Court opinions found the word “clearly” was used in 105 opinions since Jan. 9, 2012, according to Legal Skills Prof Blog. The word was used in 73 opinions when the search used a narrower time frame—since Jan. 15, 2013.
Villanova University School of Law’s director of legal writing, Louis Sirico Jr., did the search and wrote the blog post. He admits he didn’t delve further to see if the word was used because it was in a statute or regulation. “However, my small project suggests that castigating a single word or woodenly applying a single rule may be too mechanical a method for improving our students’ writing,” he concludes.
