In response to Eugene’s earlier post about an anonymous VC blog comment being cited in a legal brief with the parenthetical that the comment was written “with some apparent authority,” commenter “alias” chimes in that the hierarchy of authorities to rely on in briefs must go something like this:
1. On-point Supreme Court cases
2. On-point binding court of appeals opinions
3. Analogous Supreme Court cases
….
6. Dicta in Supreme Court cases
….
12. Law review articles
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22. Blog posts by well-known law professors, opining persuasively in their area of expertise and citing authority.
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45. Op-eds in national newspapers.
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75. Blog comments written by well-known law professors, opinion persuasively in their area of expertise and citing authority.
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3,015,036. Particularly clever LolCats pictures.
3,015,037. Blog comments by people who speak “with some apparent authority”
Very funny.