But the arid legal hairsplitting that dominates that chamber poses fewer policy problems than the messier lower courts do.

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But former North Carolina Senator John Edwards says when it comes to Iraq, those differences amount to hairsplitting, especially in contrast to the Republicans.

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Indeed, some of the product specifications seem like hairsplitting.

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Nathan practically throws up her hands over the hairsplitting distinctions between video programming that is delivered to consumers in real time, delayed by a microsecond, or stored on a hard drive to be delivered hours later.

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In that case, Scalia made the hairsplitting distinction between technology that picks up information that is out in public view and technology that reveals information that otherwise could only be obtained with eavesdropping equipment inside the house.

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