January 26 2011
Ludacris and the 7th Circuit?
posted by Allie

Ludacris has been cited by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals..... please keep reading, this is not a joke.
Judge Terence T. Evans dropped a rather amusing footnote that would propel Ludacris into legal infamy (or at least get him published in the Federal Reporter). Judge Evans felt it was necessary to clear up some confusion from the trial court transcript before he could possibly get to the merits of the case. The footnote reads:
“The trial transcript quotes Ms. Hayden as saying Murphy called her a snitch bitch "hoe." A "hoe," of course, is a tool used for weeding and gardening. We think the court reporter, unfamiliar with rap music (perhaps thankfully so), misunderstood Hayden's response. We have taken the liberty of changing "hoe" to "ho," a staple of rap music vernacular as, for example, when Ludacris raps "You doin' ho activities with ho tendencies."
That’s right, Judge Evans is clearly familiar with Luda’s work, quoting one of the best lines of the song. Although I’m rather partial to “Can’t turn a ho into a housewife, Hos don’t act right…” Amen, Luda. Amen.
So there you have it, folks. And you all thought the 7th Circuit was the stuffy, conservative one, ha! I don’t know what is funnier—the fact that “Ho” can now be searched on Westlaw or the fact that Judge Evans is a 70-year old white man.
And just for good measure, here is the citation to the case: U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857 (7th Cir. 2005).