President Bartlet says that there are "three words, and three words only, that begin with the letters 'dw.'" There are six core words that start with "dw": dweeb, dwarf, dwindle, dwell, dwale, and dwine. The other 34 words are variations or different tenses of those core four words.
Bartlet is technically incorrect when he says that the strawberry is the only fruit with its seeds on the outside. Because the seeds are on the outside, the strawberry is technically not a fruit but rather a "false fruit".
Votes in the U.S. House of Representatives are done by electronic device and not by roll call. House committee votes are done by roll call. While the vote is being broadcast, Leo tells Toby that "we won it 40 votes ago." As House committees each only have about 50 members each, there is no way that anyone would consider the vote won after only about ten votes. The vote depicted at the end is not a vote in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, it is obviously a full vote in the House.
When the White House staff is arguing with the representatives about how to take the census, they read from Article I Section 2 of the Constitution as "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons".
This section was modified in 1868 by Amendment XIV, Section 2 to change "free Persons" to "persons in each state" and removed "three fifths of all other Persons".
This section was modified in 1868 by Amendment XIV, Section 2 to change "free Persons" to "persons in each state" and removed "three fifths of all other Persons".
Mr. Willis is said to be taking his recently-deceased wife's place in the House of Representatives. While governors of most states are able to appoint persons to fill empty Senate seats to complete unexpired terms, this is not done for House seats. If a members of the House of Representatives dies or resigns, a state would have to conduct a special election to fill the seat. Mr. Willis could have been elected to take his wife's place, but he refer's to her having died only a month before, hardly giving enough time for an election to be called and conducted.
Toby and the congressmen argue whether or not Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution is outdated. However, they keep using the word "arcane." Arcane means mysterious, secret, obscure. They mean archaic, which refers to earlier times.
Charlie tells one of the men in the bar that, to buy 19-year-old Zoey a drink, "you'd have to take her to Maryland". The legal drinking age in Maryland has been 21 since 1982.