Legislative Rhetoric, or How to Oppose Anything

Abstract

The installment of the column, instead of looking at the end of the legislative process – how courts interpret enacted statutes, this installment looks at the phase at which bills are enacted by or defeated in the legislature. However, the two phases have underlying similarities. As we will see at several places, arguments used in legislative advocacy have counterparts in statutory interpretation advocacy. Proposals to revise state and local tax statutes are always with us, but current budgetary stresses have increased both the number and significance of such proposals.