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March 26, 2005

Curious coincidence

J
ust as I was thinking about linking here to an interesting discussion of a movie we just watched at my house (we missed "Quiz Show" the first time around), I came across this item: Howard Bashman at How Appealing notes that a forthcoming article in the Georgetown Law Journal bears a distinct resemblance to one of his blog posts from 2003. Quoting from the article (as found at Volokh),

. . . This Essay represents the fruits of my own daydreams, combined with the fact that lately I have spent my lucid moments mulling over one particular forgotten constitutional provision. . . .

I guess it's just a coincidence. Or if the author did get the idea from Bashman's blog, perhaps he felt under no obligation to give a non-scholarly source any credit? There's at least some irony in the fact that the 2003 HowAppealing entry in question begins: "There is not a word on this blog that someone is not thoroughly studying, analyzing, and cogitating over. It took me a little while to get used to that, but it's the burden of having a Web log that people read."

UPDATE: Author Brian Kalt writes to explain that although he did see Bashman's post, and other references to "the odd boundary line on which [his] article was based," his analysis involves Sixth Amendment implications whereas "Bashman . . . mused about the implications for cout of appeals boundaries." That difference is why Kalt did not feel obligated to cite Bashman's blog. My apologies to Prof. Kalt. It is a fine, fun essay. Congratulations.

Posted by Eric at March 26, 2005 3:42 PM

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