Footprint
Heart
Bouncing Ball
Tulip
Leaf
Flag
Fire
Starburst
Ice Cream Cone
Balls
Chili Pepper
3 Leaf Clover
Fishing Fly
Star
Big and Strong
Teensy
Sweet and Cute
Falling
Neon
Joyous
Fancy and Elegant
Clever and Tasty
Cats
Dogs
Corporate Stylin'
Corporate Stylin'
One or More?
One or More?
Pancake House
ornia
Perfect Usage
Poor Usage
Only Had One
Farmers', Farmer's, or Farmers?
With or Without?
With or Without?
Go Giants!
Go Giants!
As one of its final acts last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Kansas v. Marsh, a case involving the constitutionality of a state death-penalty statute. The 5-4 decision exposed the deep divide that exists among the nation’s intellectual elite regarding one of society’s most troubling issues — namely, whether the possessive form of a singular noun ending with the letter s requires an additional s after the apostrophe.
The issue reached a crescendo in Marsh primarily because of two circumstances. First, the statute in question originated from a state with a name ending in s. Second, the majority opinion was written by a justice whose last name ends in s. Given the confluence of these factors, it was inevitable that the justices’ philosophical differences on matters of American usage would be thrust into the spotlight.
A BITTER DIVIDE
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the Court (and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel Alito Jr., Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia), concluded that the Kansas statute was not unconstitutional. In reaching this conclusion, Thomas repeatedly referred to the relevant law as Kansas’ statute. In response, Justice David Souter wrote a dissent that was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and John Paul Stevens. The dissent revealed Souter’s bitter disagreement with both the substantive conclusion of the majority and the grammatical philosophy of the opinion’s author.
See the complete scholarly and hilarious article by Jonathan Starble.
And the complete opinions of the court.
The Apostrophe Vigilante with his Apostrophiser
The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage without Apostrophes!