The ABA Journal has released its list of the top 100 legal blogs in the world and we are once again in this august group of blogs. Congratulations to all of our regulars contributors and weekend bloggers. This blog’s success is due entirely to the consistently high level of commentary among our readers and, I believe, our commitment to civil and substantive (if at times passionate) dialogue on the legal and political issues of our day. We are again placed in the “opinion” category and facing two of the top five most popular blogs. You can vote at You can vote at this site by clicking on the “opinion” category and we need your vote. A quick registration is needed to prevent cheating in the competition.
We are up against two very popular sites: Ann Althouse and Volokh Conspiracy. Both are conservative legal sites and are highly regarded. The latter is a site founded by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh and is run by 19 conservative law professors, including my colleague Orin Kerr. While I often disagree with their conclusions, I have always found it very substantive and thought-provoking. Ann Althouse is one of the oldest legal sites with a very large audience placing her in the top three most visited legal sites in the world — a remarkable achievement.
I must confess that maintaining this site and my day job does not leave me much time to visit other sites. However, this competition highlights the remarkable array of top sites available to readers, including those in the opinion category. Other categories include sites that I have always found insightful and provocative like Scotusblog, BLT, Simple Justice, How Appealing, Sentencing Law and Policy, and TaxLaw Prof. I recommend, however, that you look at the other sites — including many appearing for the first time.
Our blog is described as follows:
Maybe it’s our journalism bias, but we like when D.C.-based constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley opines on the news of the day and isn’t always satisfied with the version recounted in media reports. In February, he went straight to the source to tease out the sequence of events that cost an Indiana deputy attorney general his job. Of course, we also get a kick out of the occasional random, off-topic posts, especially the penguin videos he shared after his son Ben pointed them out.
Benjamin was thrilled by the reference to his penguin selection.
This is always a fun competition, win or lose. Last year, the competition turned ugly with a misinformation campaign by a regular from one of the other competing sites (again among the opinion blogs this year) that told pro-gun sites that I am a leading anti-gun advocate — and encouraged all gun owners to vote against our blog in defense of gun ownership. It spoiled an otherwise friendly contest among blogs. All blogs should be rightfully proud of their accomplishments and common purpose — and intense loyalty of their regulars contributors.
Good luck to all of the blogs this year and thank you ABA Journal. Now go and vote!
Thought I’d mosey on over to The Volokh Conspiracy site and see just how they made up all that ground on RIL. Here’s a little excerpt from a pithy little blog entry by David Kopel. Mr. Kopel is apparently the research director at the Independence Institute:
… Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern) has an interesting and thoughtful post on the state of originalism. Synthesizing analysis by Jamal Greene and Jack Balkin, Koppelman writes, “Originalism is fundamentally about a narrative of rhetorical self-identification with the achievements of a founding historical moment. That is the real basis of its power. An originalist argument will be powerful to the extent that can persuade its audience that it can keep faith with that identification.”
Thus, “Originalist argument is an artifact designed to recall the Constitution’s origin and connect what we are doing now with that origin. Once this functional definition of originalism is understood, it follows that the range of possible original arguments is quite broad.
A “narrative of rhetorical self-identification,” eh? Harry Reasoner where are you when we need you? How that compares with Turley Torts and Penguin videos, I’ll never know, but to each his own. Yeesh!
Another vote logged for the Turley blog…
Late to the party,but I too have a”purple thumb” :=)
Voted with pride and pleasure.
Just voted. Good luck!
lotta,
Where you been girl? Missed you.
I thought about the bobcats but I’m afraid those clever boys would pull a fast one by substituting HenMan who would then find himself catapulted right into the middle of a bunch of detained terrorist- Senators … a fate worse than death for any cheesehead.
i voted yesterday
remember, vote early, vote often
Blouise: “Tex is working on the plans to construct a giant catapult (trebuchet) in the backyard”
——
Blouise, might I suggest that Tex use this as a model. Then fill it with mean cats. I will volunteer my large bad-tempered cat (bit me twice in the past three days!) as he has a very large mouth, sharp teeth and of late, a hideous attitude – like his mama. Maybe draft the Bob cats too. Congress wouldn’t stand a chance. 🙂
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/funny-pictures-fire-the-catapult.jpg
Congratulations again this year Professor, recognition well earned! Voted earlier today.
sorry … Modern Family
As we say in the deep South: “VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN”. I was #64 today at 5:45 p.m. EST:
COPIED AND PASTED FROM VOTE SITE:
64
votes
Voted.
Jonathan Turley
Maybe it’s our journalism bias, but we like when D.C.-based constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley opines on the news of the day and isn’t always satisfied with the version recounted in media reports. In February, he went straight to the source to tease out the sequence of events that cost an Indiana deputy attorney general his job. Of course, we also get a kick out of the occasional random, off-topic posts, especially the penguin videos he shared after his son Ben pointed them out.
Twitter: @JonathanTurley
Good luck Jonathan!
raff,
If some lil’ Grima Wormtongue doesn’t already have us all on a list somewhere, I’d be very surprised.
OS,
The pumpkin toss towards the Captial building would probably be cause for including all of our names on the terrorist list, if they are not there already.
Aha … you watch American Family too … great show
Come to think of it, the idea of throwing pumpkins at Congress at about 400 miles per hour sounds like a fun afternoon.
OK. I guess it could also be used as a target for the next Punkin’ Chunkin’ contest.
OS,
It has to be Lake Erie …. Tex is working on the plans to construct a giant catapult (trebuchet) in the backyard … I’m going to ask Tony C and tomdarch for input on design … when completed we will hold a weekly get rid of your garbage event all aimed at one sparsely populated island in the middle of Lake Erie.
I voted earlier today. Keep up the great work, Professor.