Is Latin a Dead Language?
In this opinion released today, Judge Boyce Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit declares that Latin is a "dead language" (in footnote 5). Judge Alice Batchelder begs to differ. Her opinion concurring in the judgment reads:
I concur in Judge Martin's opinion. I write separately only to express my suspicion that, like the reports of Mark Twain's death, see The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third Edition, 2002), the report of the death of Latin in the majority opinion's footnote 5 is greatly exaggerated.