Harvey Erwin Schlesinger

Decides on the narrowest ground that disposes of the matter and says so explicitly.

“Addressing only the issues necessary to resolve the matter, the Court concludes that the policy provides no coverage to the extent First Coast seeks recovery for the loss of use of the defective tanks, or for their repair and replacement.”

Rejects a claim of contractual ambiguity by pointing to ordinary drafting practice rather than to canons of construction.

“The Court is unable to discern how this gives rise to ‘duplicity’ or ‘uncertainty’ in the meaning of the provision's language-it is standard drafting practice to define terms in sections different from the provisions that refer to them.”

Measures an agency's account of its own conduct against what the record produced over the life of the case actually shows.

“The existence of these additional documents poses a serious challenge to Defendant's claim that its initial search was reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.”

States a conflict between two statutes in one plain sentence before resolving which yields.

“An irreconcilable conflict is what appears before this Court — the Code permits conduct that the Act prohibits.”

Frames a dispute over a new technology as a separation-of-powers question about the limits of the judicial role.

“In this case this Court is confronted with an old problem: the difficulty of reconciling new technology with old law, thus raising the centuries old separation of powers controversy.”

Treats an insurer's failure to defend as settling the coverage question, then moves directly to the amount.

“Since Evanston breached the AE Policy when it failed to defend Plaintiffs in the Beverly Litigation and Plaintiffs incurred liability in the amount of $325,000.00 and attorneys’ fees, Plaintiffs are entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law.”

Declines to read a qualification into an exclusion the parties wrote without one.

“As DCSB fails to raise an issue of genuine fact as to the ambiguity of the pollution exclusion, summary judgment in favor of Century is appropriate.”

Acknowledges that any election rule burdens some voters, which sets the baseline against which a challenge must be measured.

“it is clear that every regulation that creates an election structure will necessarily disenfranchise some voters.”

Reads interdependent counts as a single sentencing package rather than as severable parts.

“The Court finds that the interdependence and mutual exclusivity of 924(c) sentence and the 2D1.1(b)(1) enhancement means that terms of imprisonment imposed under both constitute a single ‘sentence’ for purposes of 2255.”