Joseph Kimble (WMU–Cooley Law School) has posted Deep in the Weeds of Textualism (21 Green Bag 2D 297 (Summer 2018)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Examines the highly publicized serial-comma case (O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy) decided by the First Circuit in 2017. Digs into the court’s overwrought textual analysis and suggests how the analysis might better have been written. Also looks at the surplusage canon, the use of dictionaries in decision-making, and “liberal” and “strict” construction.