Tuesday, January 12, 2010

SCOTUS v. Orthogonal

The Volokh Conspiracy points out "From the oral argument transcript today in Briscoe v. Virginia, a funny moment in the argument of University of Michigan law professor Richard Friedman."

"The Supreme Court has never used the word “orthogonal” in a written opinion." We programming geeks use it all the time.

And I'm very happy that the Justices are not at all afraid to ask when they don't know a word.

1 comment:

Richard said...

I love it. They seemed as interested in learning it and using it as I do when I encounter new word. I like Friedman's comment, "That is a bit of professorship creeping in, I suppose."

All my vector calculus sits rotting in my brain waiting to flower again at such a moment.