The Influence of Law Blogs (2006-Present)

I asked my wonderful research assistant, Robert Blumberg (TLS ’12), to update the Yospe/Best study on court citation of blogs and the Best 2006 study on law review citation of blogs.  He used as a dataset the 2009 legal educator blog census (which we are currently updating – see future posts for details), excluded some general sites which happen to have a law professor as rare contributor (the Huffington Post), and ran searches in WL’s JLR database.  Since 2006, under those conditions, law blogs have been cited in the journals 5460 5883 times.  Here are the top twenty sites since 2006.  Total citations are in (parenthesis), 2006 rank in [brackets]:

1. FindLaw’s Writ (618)
2. The Volokh Conspiracy (402) [2]
3. SCOTUSBlog (305) [4]
4. Balkinization (259) [3]
5. Patently-O: Patent Law Blog (211) [8]
6. Concurring Opinions (162)
7. Sentencing Law and Policy (160) [1]
8. JURIST – Paper Chase (130)
9. PrawfsBlawg (122)
10. The Becker-Posner Blog (104) [10]
11. Conglomerate (102)
12. White Collar Crime Prof Blog (89) [12]
13. Election Law @ Mortiz (85)
14. Legal Theory Blog (85) [5]
15. The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog (76)
16. Technology & Marketing Law Blog (74)
17. Lessig Blog (73) [6]
18. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Goverance and Financial Regulation (72)
19. Ideoblog (72)
20. Election Law Blog (69)

Overall, the top 20 represented around 63% of all citations over the four year study period.  In 2006, the top 20 represented 76% of  852 citations.  In 2007, the top 20 represented 68% of 1095 citations.  In 2008, the top 20 represented 61% of 1388 citations.  In 2009, the top 20 represented 63% of 1441 citations.  Finally, in 2010 (so far) the top 20 has represented 65% of 562 citations.  It is difficult to make out any clear trend lines in the data.  Even taking into account the lag time of publication for 2009 and 2010 volumes, the rate of citations to law blogs is not increasing. There is a very mild trend toward diffusion in influence, although the top blogs still appear to drive the conversation, even as the number of professors blogging increased.  In the aggregate, the top few  blogs would each (if considered to be individual scholars) be worthies on Leiter’s citation lists.

The story in the courts is a bit more…unimpressive.  Since 2006, law professor blogs have been cited in the WL ALLCASES database a measly 38 times.  The honored blogs are:

1.  Sentencing Law and Policy (17)
2.  FindLaw’s Writ (4)
3.  The Volokh Conspiracy (3)
4.  ProfessorBainbridge.com (3)
5.  PrawfsBlawg (1)
5.  The Becker-Posner Blog (1)
5.  First Things (1)
5.  How Appealing (1)
5.  Credit Slips  (1)
5.  ImmigrationProf Blog (1)
5.  The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Blog (1)
5.  Crime and Federalism (1)
5.  Is That Legal? (1)
5. Goldman’s Observations (1)
5.  Legal In-sur-rec-tion (1)

As I hypothesized in 2007, early reports of (and concern about) court’s relying on blogs depended on the novel sentencing revolution.  Outside of sentencing problems, courts are uncomfortable relying on the dashed off thoughts of a bunch of professors noodling on the web.   Overall, Berman’s Sentencing Blog is the clear leader – of over 300 blogs – in providing useful information to courts.

You can check out the entirety of the dataset in this excel file If we’ve made errors, please email me and I’ll correct this post. [Update: I’ve made a few corrections. Update #2: more corrections!]  Also, if you have started a blog in the last year (since 2009) please email me.  We’re working on the revised and updated Census, and I’d appreciate your assistance in finding new entrants.