European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page is the stars and stripes monday october 5,1987 column the Fine Art of cutting phrases by Williams Afi reas always televised hearings chum up new uses fold terms. As the Senate deliberated the nomination 10 the supreme court of judge Robert h. Dork logo Hills wig lid the words or the Solans and inc  Cumbra nearly shadowed All. Bce Aasc the rights of privacy interested lawmakers who hoped he courts rather than the Congress would handle that persnickety Issue Justice William o. Douglas opinion in gris wolds. Connecticut was often quoted lie had written thai specific guarantees in he Bill or rights have plenum bras formed Byeman Lifis from those guarantees thai help give them life and  emanation from inc latin for flow is some thing emitted from a  like Gas belching froma Pool. A Penumbra from he latin put enc Al most Ana Umbra Shadow Means literally Al most  it was first used in 1604 by the Ger Man astronomer Johann Kepler and a half Conlu Rolater made it into English the Moon was not at All obscured by the True Shadow but entered Only a Little Inlo the  astronomers used the term to describe the area of faint Light or partial Shadow that surrounds the Tola Shadow in an eclipse. The word crossed Over to Gener Al use in a figurative sense of the Gray area Between Black and White issues. The British novelist  wrote in her 1801 Story Angelina that i will defend him Madam. Against every Shadow every Penumbra of aristocratic  . Eliot gave the hazy area More currency in drafts of his poem the waste land in the Early 1920s within this Penumbra consciousness thus Douglas a Good and careful writer chose an Al word to describe what he believed to be a Shadow area slightly ill Mina cd by Light coming Fror parts of the Constitution thai formed a right of privacy. A word of similar meaning though not a synonym is fringe the noun Penumbra can also mean area of obscurity or part shaded by doubt when Penumbra is confused with a different noun also formed from the latin for Shadow umbrella semantic Isle take umbrage. Al though Many modern lawyers and jurists have place great weight on Douglas Penumbra of privacy none can claim inc dimness to be Clear or Black and White that would be a contradiction in terms. Discussing he anti contraceptive Law struck Downs unconstitutional in Griswold Bork told senators he had described the statute As nutty Chatlen Ableon Many grounds but had criticized Douglas reasoning that led to the creation of an undefined an potentially confusing Penumbra. The Law. Was an utterly antique statute. Nobody would Ever have enforced it. I think you d have a great argument of no fair warning or some Imes what lawyers Call and hate to use a word like this Des etude meaning it s just so out of Date it s gone into  judge haled to use a word like that Beanie in was unfamiliar 10 the general Public and the use of60-Dollar words made the speaker seem intellectual or professorial. However there Are those of us who embrace Des etude As an old Friend in political history. The word is rooted in inc latin for disuse an Means the same today. Al first appeared in Henry cock ram s 1623 English Liichi Oncaric or an inter Preter of hard English words defined As Lade of use but made in big in politics when president Grover Cleveland in 1886 sent a message to Congress thai touched on he disuse into which he once controversial tenure of office act had fallen after an existence of nearly 20 years of almost innocuous Des etude these Laws Are brought  the word s pronunciation in most dictionaries sides i Tood but perhaps because of the influence of the second syllable emphasis of in Noc a Ous mos people 1 know pronounce in do sue i Tood former speaker of the House Champ Clark writ ing in 1920, recalled this famous Cleveland coinage even More memorable than his Public office is Public Trust which had been the creation of a ghostwriter. His most exquisite phrase Tuti Clar about Cleveland and entirely original so far As i know was innocuous Des etude still frequently quoted and perhaps to be quoted As Long As our vernacular is spoken by the children of  agree the phrase has the same adjective noun ring As the historian sir James Mackintosh s Mas Terly inactivity or Winston Churchill s terminological  where is such  fallen into you know whal. Advise and repent during his record setting 3i hours of testimony at the Senate confirmation hearings Bork was criticize for rigidity and inflexibility on his views that had not changed and criticised for what sen. Patrickj. Leahy called this metamorphosis on views that had changed. Bork supporters used consistency predictability and coherence to characterize unchanged views and growth and nol set in con Crete to explain shifts in position Over the decades. The judge himself tried to Point out that his role changed from precedent challenging professor to solicitor general to precedent following judge which had an effect on what he had to say. The assertion of views different from those Hel when he wrote As a professor in 1971 led to Leahy s charge of metamorphosis. That is a word thai came Inlo English in sir Thomas More s 1531 writing about witchcraft thereby lending ammunition to those who defended Hork As a victim of a Witch Hunt. In is from the greek for  gained � meaning in biology As a profound change in form during the life of an  in it figurative meaning today the word denotes More than Mere alteration or modification of views which is Why in was rejected by Bork supporters. An attack phrase used by opponents of the nominee especially Leahy was confirmation conversion this was an alliterative play on deathbed conversion variant of deathbed repentance slyly suggesting thai the imminence of punishment led to a change of  new phrase unbound in the computer tiles be fore these hearings is Likely to be used often in he future to impugn a nominee s motives in adopting any views of the confirming senators. It Ain t on a level with innocuous Des etude but in shows that the Coin age of stashing phrases is not a lost Art. 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