The New York Times <A
HREF=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/nyregion/07appeal.html?oref=login”>reports
that a child pornographer’s ten-year prison sentence was thrown out because
of a single word in the law:
The law said that defendants like Mr. Pabon, who was convicted two years
ago of advertising to receive or distribute child pornography over the
Internet, should be fined or receive a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years “and both.”
The appeals court said this language “makes no sense.”
We are reminded once again that opponents of official English are expecting
our government to function in over 300 languages while our government is
doing its best, not always successfully, to function in just one.