In Ohio, one court confronted the question of black citizenship when called upon to interpret the phrase "citizen of the United States" as set forth in its state constitution.
"It is passing strange," he wrote, "to interpret the phrase 'the freedom of speech, or of the press' to mean, not everyone's right to speak or publish, but rather everyone's right to speak or the institutional press's right to publish.
There is, however, enough ambiguity there to enable the Supreme Court, considering the statute's broad anti-discrimination purpose, to interpret the phrase "on the basis of sex" to encompass gender identity for the purpose of school bathrooms.
Justice Kagan used reasoning similar to that in last week's decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, which looked to ordinary usage to interpret the phrase "personal privacy" in a different FOIA exemption.
Fairy tales never reveal exactly what happens once the prince and princess have shaken the rice from their hair, but here's a sample of how other coupled creatures interpret the phrase, "And they lived happily ever after": *Any time a pair of great-crested grebes reunites after a separation, the white-cheeked, pointy-beaked water birds celebrate with an aquatic version of the tango.
Only the most Teutonic soul would fail to laugh at the second line of the first sonnet to Orpheus: "O tall tree in the ear!" Any English major could interpret the phrase's significance -- phallic imagery, echoes of the Annunciation, etc., but the words themselves remain essentially ridiculous.
"I've always been about the rock 'n' roll lifestyle," Ms. Cavaco explained, interpreting the phrase somewhat narrowly.
Care must be used in interpreting the phrase on average, which applies most accurately to a large number of cases and is not useful in individual instances.
Examining titles occurring on ceramics and monuments, he interpreted the phrase ah k'u hun to mean "keeper of the royal library".
Interpreting the phrase literally, the Italian reporter filed a story revealing that youthful Turkish gangsters were easing out the Maffia regulars.
Russ Klein, a marketing executive, who has been on Atkins since Dec. 21, interpreted the phrase "foods you may eat liberally" to mean "eat until you are full".
