Spring Break
Angry Students Stage Bluebook Burning
Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
A group of eight Harvard Law School 1Ls were arrested outside Gannett House this morning after staging a mass Bluebook burning. The eight remain in jail tonight, and there is no word yet on when they might be released.
Sources close to the students say the impromptu protest began the night before 1L Ames briefs were due. 1L Jim Johnson was attempting to figure out the proper citation in Massachusetts state court for a government report co-authored by three different agencies and posted on the Internet as an MS Word document.
When not a single one of his Hastings floor mates proved able to assist him, Johnson walked the short distance to Gannett House where he began throwing stones at the windows and shouting "Come out, you [expletive], and Bluebook this [expletive] [expletive]."
Being only 3:30am, Gannett House was, of course, fully staffed, and members of the Harvard Law Review were forced to take shelter under desks as one window after another was shattered by the rocks.
Within five minutes, gathering 1Ls had scaled the chain-link fence that inexplicably encircles the tree near Austin Hall, and had cut off enough of its branches to create a sizeable bonfire outside the Law Review Offices.
"Some books are just too dangerous for people to be exposed to," said 1L Kelly Simpson, as she heaped Bluebooks onto the flame. "I mean, think of the children."
"I don't regret any of it," Simpson said today from the county jail, "but as a Harvard law student what are my options? Can't I call Alan Dershowitz or something?"
Many HLS student leaders loudly denounced the Bluebook burning. "There is no evil contained within these pages that is greater than the evil contained in their destruction," said the president of the Federalist Society. "Although, the new rule on international working group papers is pretty evil. I guess we might support a 'selective page burning.' We'll have to get back to you on that."
Representatives of the Law Review reported that they would get back to work soon in their super secret lair/auxiliary offices. The next issue of the Law Review, they stated, would certainly not be delayed, and, more importantly, the newest edition of the Bluebook would include a definitive rule on citing notes wrapped around rocks thrown through windows in the dead of night.
Sources close to the students say the impromptu protest began the night before 1L Ames briefs were due. 1L Jim Johnson was attempting to figure out the proper citation in Massachusetts state court for a government report co-authored by three different agencies and posted on the Internet as an MS Word document.
When not a single one of his Hastings floor mates proved able to assist him, Johnson walked the short distance to Gannett House where he began throwing stones at the windows and shouting "Come out, you [expletive], and Bluebook this [expletive] [expletive]."
Being only 3:30am, Gannett House was, of course, fully staffed, and members of the Harvard Law Review were forced to take shelter under desks as one window after another was shattered by the rocks.
Within five minutes, gathering 1Ls had scaled the chain-link fence that inexplicably encircles the tree near Austin Hall, and had cut off enough of its branches to create a sizeable bonfire outside the Law Review Offices.
"Some books are just too dangerous for people to be exposed to," said 1L Kelly Simpson, as she heaped Bluebooks onto the flame. "I mean, think of the children."
"I don't regret any of it," Simpson said today from the county jail, "but as a Harvard law student what are my options? Can't I call Alan Dershowitz or something?"
Many HLS student leaders loudly denounced the Bluebook burning. "There is no evil contained within these pages that is greater than the evil contained in their destruction," said the president of the Federalist Society. "Although, the new rule on international working group papers is pretty evil. I guess we might support a 'selective page burning.' We'll have to get back to you on that."
Representatives of the Law Review reported that they would get back to work soon in their super secret lair/auxiliary offices. The next issue of the Law Review, they stated, would certainly not be delayed, and, more importantly, the newest edition of the Bluebook would include a definitive rule on citing notes wrapped around rocks thrown through windows in the dead of night.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
where am I?
posted 4/10/07 @ 6:30 PM EST
This must be a joke. I hate the bluebook just as much as the next guy, but come on...oh, and a little note for you harvard law reviewers - your evil 18th edition bluebook has a mistake in it - compare the last example in 10. (Continued…)
Daniel Miller
posted 4/11/07 @ 2:55 PM EST
Good thing we use ALWD at my law school, I fear a Bluebook retaliation on the horizon. Note to self, send my kids to Yale or Columbia.
Nancy Wanderer
posted 4/11/07 @ 4:53 PM EST
Is this a joke? It seems plausible to me.
Jen Sunderlin
posted 4/12/07 @ 2:40 PM EST
The Albany Law Review just printed an interesting article about role of American law schools in using the Bluebook vs. the ALWD. For more information, see Ian Gallacher, Cite Unseen: How Neutral Citation and America's Law Schools Can Cure Our Strange Devotion to Bibliographical Orthodoxy and the Constriction of Open and Equal Access to the Law, 70 Alb. (Continued…)
dan
posted 4/13/07 @ 1:19 AM EST
Shouldn't the Issue Date say 4/1/2007 or "April 1, 2007"? Otherwise, someone might actually think this was a real article about real events.
BTW: The Bluebook should be scrapped. (Continued…)
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