On Tue, 2007-03-27 at 16:12 -0700, DJA wrote: > Paul G. Allen wrote: > > On Tue, 2007-03-27 at 14:03 -0500, Todd Walton wrote: > >> On 3/27/07, Paul G. Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> Have a bill put on a ballot and the People can vote on it. > >> Now we're capitalizing People! Did the People create government and > >> then step back to no longer affect it? Or are we aPeople? The People > >> never existed! > >> > >> Our Supreme Leader was appointed by the People. He has a mandate! > >> > > > > "People" is a term reference in the Constitution and other legal > > documents of the time (some of it known as Common Law) that (summarized) > > means citizens of the United States. I capitalize it so as to make > > reference to that particular legal definition. > > > > PGA > > It's not a definition, it's a convention. >
No, it's a definition in legal terms. I've spent a lot of time looking it up on numerous occasions. In a legal document, there are three ways to define a term (I've spent a lot of time looking this up too, because of my numerous brushes with the court and legal system and many legal documents and double-speaking lawyers): Within the legal document that it appears in (we've all seen this in AUPs, licenses, etc.) Within references to other legal documents or cases where the term has been legally used and/or defined. Lacking the above, as defined by the common definition of the term in the spoken language that the document in question is written in. "People" (I've seen it written as "people", but I believe this to be a mistake by non-legal savvy people copying documents, etc.) is defined within the Common Law from the time that the Constitution (and other supporting documents) were written. Other terms such as "arms" or "Arms" and "militia" or "Militia" are also defined within the same Common Law. They all have clear meaning when taken with these definitions and with the context of when they were used. PGA -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
