Plan B Forum

Clearly, these appellate judges do not have the stuff to be a Supreme Court justice.

Where you can ignore the plain meaning of statute and perform an extensive (tortured?) analysis of the entire law to justify changing the plain meaning.

According to a law in the village of West Jefferson, certain types of vehicles cannot be parked longer than 24 hours, including "any motor vehicle camper, trailer, farm implement and/or non-motorized vehicle." That's "motor vehicle camper" instead of "motor vehicle, camper."

Cammerelli argued that her truck does not fit the description because of the missing comma between "vehicle" and "camper."

Though the village claims that in context, the meaning of the law is clear enough, Judge Robert Hendrickson of the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals sided with Cammerelli, noting that the village should amend the issue.

Ummmm...excuse me? If there were a comma between "motor vehicle" and "camper" wouldn't that mean that it is illegal to park any motor vehicle at all more than 24 hours, rather than just certain types of vehicles? If that's what the law meant, what would be the point of enumerating a list of other types of vehicles that would already be included in the category "motor vehicle"? Ms. Cammerelli and Judge Hendrickson got it right, and the village got it wrong.

Commas are important.