(Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

It was supposed to be a friendly amendment to a Georgia House resolution creating a study committee.

That is, until attorney and Sandy Springs legislator Josh McLaurin warned chairman Dave Belton at a Feb. 25 meeting of the House Special Rules committee that in introducing the amendment, he also proposed to do something that could be "a little bit divisive." He then added an Oxford comma.

Josh McLaurin of Krevolin & Horst associate (Courtesy photo)

It was "a bit of a sneaky move," McLaurin, an associate at Atlanta's Krevolin & Horst, said. "The Oxford comma took a ride on a friendly amendment that everybody was expected to adopt. And, in true legislative fashion, a handful of people got what they wanted before everyone else realized what was happening."

The maneuver drew shade from House Minority Whip William Boddie, who was shepherding H.R. 933 through the committee and anticipated no objection to the addition of the president of the Community Associations Institute as a third member of the new study committee.

"Such a Yale law graduate," Boddie scoffed at the time.

"Thank you for your shade, Mr. Author," McLaurin replied.

As anyone who follows Georgia Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard's Twitter feed knows, the Oxford comma engenders passionate debate, and sometimes litigation, over its necessity. Dillard is an ardent defender of its use, 

Named for the Oxford University Press Style Manual, which mandates its placement, the comma, also known as a serial comma, precedes the last item in a list or series. But some American style guides dropped it from their lexicon, much to the consternation of legions of devoted grammarians.

McLaurin is an Oxford comma devotee, because it "leaves no ambiguity about whether items are arrayed in a series. It leaves the eye satisfied that what it is seeing is not an appositive."

An appositive, he explained, is a noun or noun phrase that modifies a noun and is generally set off by regular commas.

McLaurin's introduction of the Oxford comma did prompt discussion.

"So bear with me. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not as smart as y'all," Belton said as he walked McLaurin through his addition of one regular comma and the Oxford comma. Belton then checked to make sure Boddie had no objection.

"I'm a very simple soul, Mr. McLaurin," Belton added before calling for a vote.

"I know I'm messing up, Mr. Chairman, but I had to do it," McLaurin said. The amendment, including the addition of the Oxford comma, passed without objection.

McLaurin said later that Belden "is familiar with serial commas. He is a very learned man who has traveled a lot. He had simply not heard it referred to as an Oxford comma before. The chairman was fully aware of the purpose of the serial comma. But there were other members of the committee who questioned both during and after the committee why we were caught up in talking about a comma."