The question is in the thread title - when you hear the phrase ‘moral turpitude’, what comes to mind?
Turpentine
A great weekend, followed by possible job/endorsement contract loss.
In the context in which I’ve mostly heard it, it brings to mind a nonsense phrase used by US Immigration (now Customs and Border Protection) to exclude people they don’t like.
An example that comes to mind from many years ago was a prominent Canadian psychologist who was permanently banned from the US for having once authored a paper suggesting that LSD may have therapeutic benefits in treating certain types of mental disorders. Apparently that was “moral turpitude”.
“That person does things I don’t approve of, and has no shame about it.” Because it is so non-specific, I tend to think it is being used to cover milder pecadillos, and by a rather uptight person.
The old visa and green card forms I had to sign when I first came to the States. They changed before I got citizenship but for a long time they sounded somewhere between a Victorian purity pledge and a macarthy era loyalty oath. Lots of “have you committed a crime of moral turpitude”, “ever been a sexual deviant”, “ever been a member of the communist party”, and (60 years after the fall of the third Reich) “did you commit any war cimes for the Nazis between 1933 and 1945”
An egregious, deliberate offense that shocks the conscience of a reasonable person or professional community.
Well, I looked up “turpitude”: A corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice
So, “moral” seems redundant. What other kind of “turpitude” could one have if not “moral”?
I conflated “turpid” and “turbid” for years. I now remember they’re different words, but have to look up which is which.
Very interesting, thanks!
I don’t know if this quite matches the description given for a “legal doublet”. I looked up “redundant phrases”, and I think this matches that. Examples:
advance warning
end result
actual fact
added bonus
basic essentials
free gift
comp[etely annihilate
unexpected surprise
Burgess Meredith as the Penguin.
A bullshit charge added to other bullshit charges.
A scene with Kim Cattrall from Porky’s.
Came here to say that.
Wouldn’t a redundant phrase be immoral turpitude? Moral turpitude is an oxymoron. When you think about it.
But what comes to mind today is Kristi Noem.
Not at all. “Moral turpitude” is to distinguish it from the turpitude used to thin paint.
You mean porpentine.
Ah! My bad.
Contract law, specifically the sort of morality clauses Hollywood stars used to sign with the studios that allowed the studios to fire them for scandal.