The Growing Influence of Law Blogs

In addition to all matters of corporate governance, this Blog chronicles the growing influence of Law Blogs. We have run posts on the number of law review and court citations by Law Blogs sponsored by faculty. So we note the story from Linda Greenhouse at the NYT on mistake appearing in the opinion by Justice Kennedy striking down the death penalty in the case of rape of a child. The opinion stated that there was no death penalty for the offense at the federal level. In fact, this was apparently in error (some poor law clerk and/or lawyer who wrote the brief containing the assertion are likely in the Supreme court doghouse).

The relevance to Law Blogs? It turns out, as she reports, that the mistake was first identified in “a military law blog.”  The blog pointed out that the Code of Military Justice had been amended in 2006, adding child rape as a death penalty offense.  In other words, the role and influence of law blogs grows.  We can now add corrections to mistakes made in Supreme Court opinions.