There is a great article by Adam Liptak in today's New York Times. It reinforces the importance of the small things in the practice of law.
"In Supreme Court Opinions, Web Links The Go Nowhere" Liptak reports a new study that found that 49% of the hyperlinks in U.S. Supreme Court do not link. Some of them even go to prank websites.
This is an embarrassing flaw in a legal system based largely on common law. It also reflects the inherent difficulty in citing the internet, which, unlike dusty old law books, is a constantly moving target.
Technology excuses aside, this cannot be happy news for the U.S. judicial system. Not only have the Supreme Court justices exempted themselves from rules of judicial ethics that apply to all other Federal judges; but now they appear to have forgotten basic rules of quality control in legal writing that are pounded into every first-year law student in the country.
If the Supremes can't get it right more than 51% of the time without apparently any serious quality assurance system, what hope is there for us mere mortals?
Norman Clark
P.S. When last I checked, the link to Adam Liptak's article still worked.
