Bob Dylan cited in US Supreme Court dissenting opinion (Roberts)

The last chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court liked light opera. The new one cites Bob Dylan. Four pages into his dissent last Monday in an achingly boring dispute between pay phone companies and long distance carriers, John Roberts Jr., the chief justice of the United States, put a song lyric where the citation to precedent usually goes.

"The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing," Roberts wrote. "'When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.' Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965)."

Alex Long, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and perhaps the nation's leading authority on the citation of popular music in judicial opinions, said this was almost certainly the first use of a rock lyric to buttress a legal proposition in a Supreme Court decision. "It's a landmark opinion," Long said.

But Dylan has been cited only once before as an authority on Article III standing, which concerns who can bring a lawsuit in federal court. His key contribution to legal discourse has been in another area.

"The correct rule on the necessity of expert testimony has been summarized by Bob Dylan: 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,"' a California appeals court wrote in 1981, citing "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Eighteen other decisions have cited that lyric.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/america/dylan.php

I'm pleased to see his words have such wide ranging use and impact. I'm troubled that a ballsack such as Roberts is the one to apply them.

ballsacks a bad name.

Is that roberts message?

next contestant.

who knew?
I just hate it when wingers cite left wing artists to support their right wing views. Like McCain trying to rip off a theme song. Have Orrin Hatch write one for you, Johnny.

that conservative artists suck.

Seems a little mean spirited to deny someone good music just because we don't agree with them.

to help advance his cause of war and classism, I might raise a bit of a fuss. If for no other reason, I would not want folks think I endorse their programs.

from the current and former evil regimes dies:

"And I'll stand over your grave
until I'm sure you are dead."

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

BushCo and their cronies have taken just about everything else from us.

And he is telling us we don't have it.

I still think Roberts is an ass. But he's a witty ass.