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Cops and Robbers: Selective Literalism in American Criminal Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Peter M. Tiersma  and
Lawrence M. Solan
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Abstract

Police often ask people to consent to a search of their person or possessions. Many people agree to allow such searches because they interpret the officers' ostensible “requests” as indirect commands. Yet courts routinely interpret police utterances in this situation as requests. A similar issue arises in the context of custodial interrogation. People being interrogated are inclined to invoke their right to counsel in relatively indirect or tentative terms. Yet courts often conclude that the suspect did not really “request” the presence of counsel. We refer to this inconsistency as “selective literalism,” by which we mean that courts selectively consider pragmatic circumstances in interpreting the speech of suspects. Using analytical tools from linguistic theory, this article explores how courts employ selective literalism. It further examines some of the consequences of this inconsistent use of interpretive devices, both practically and jurisprudentially.

Type
Comment on the Presidential Address
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 229 - 266
Copyright
© 2004 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

The authors are grateful to Susan Herman, Joseph Sanders, and three anonymous reviewers of this journal for comments on an earlier draft of this article. We would also like to thank Heidi Brooks, Marji Molavi, and Tara Lombardi for research assistance. This work was supported by a summer research grant from Brooklyn Law School and by the Joseph Scott Fellowship of Loyola Law School.

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