Explainer

You Say CLE-ment, I Say cle-MENT

How to pronounce the potential Supreme Court nominee’s name.

According to news reports, President Bush will reveal his Supreme Court nominee tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Rumors are swirling around Washington that Judge Edith Brown Clement  will be his choice to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Since we’ll be saying Clement’s name a lot in the coming days, we might as well pronounce it correctly. Is it CLE-ment, or cle-MENT?

For the answer, we called up one of her law clerks on the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. The clerk, who declined to give his name, did allow us to record him saying his boss’s name.

Click here for the correct pronunciation.