Subject: Re: the meaning of 'and'
In the 100 minutes of discussion in this Supreme Court case yesterday, the words 'logic' and 'parenthesis' were never said. In contrast, 'em dash' was said 15 times.

count      word
  0       logic
  0    parenthesis
  13     grammar
  15     em dash
  18     language

The English language is imprecise and ambiguous. Common sense is used to figure out meaning, and sometimes people disagree on what a sentence means. Maybe this is a feature not a bug. I'm fine with this approach to the law, but prefer using logic myself because I am more comfortable with math than with grammar.

But this particular law seems to be a grammatical mistake, and the Supreme Court justices struggled to find the meaning. Congress should just fix the law. One version uses 'or' and an alternate version uses 'and'. Vote for one or the other.

"JUSTICE ALITO: Well, just out of curiosity, I wonder if I can ask you a question about how you think language works in general. Let's just forget about special rules that apply to statutory interpretation for a moment and just talk about how language works in general and your understanding of that. If I say something and it's ambiguous and you're trying to figure out whether I mean A or B, to what degree do you take into account whether A or B makes more sense?"
https://www.supremecourt.gov/o...