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Monday, August 11, 2008
The Nature of Authority
Don't cite Wikipedia, they said. Fair enough.
But today comes the news that John McCain may have plagiarized a speech about the crisis in Georgia from Wikipedia. If the political branches get their information from Wikipedia, does that mean that courts now need to consult Wikipedia as a means of reconstructing legislative history? Will Wikipedia become part of the original public meaning of future constitutional amendments?
Posted by James Grimmelmann on August 11, 2008 at 05:16 PM in Information and Technology | Permalink
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Comments
I am no fan of John McCain, but I think it obscures and distorts the reality of modern life to say that "John McCain may have plagiarized..." He did no such thing. He delivered a speech that was plagiarized. He relied on a staffer to create a speech, the staffer took a shortcut and he gave the speech. The real question: is this the result of McCain's campaign following the same disastrous loyalty over merit hiring that ruined the Bush Justice Department? If so, we have another reason to reject his attempt to continue the monstrous failure of the Bush years.
Posted by: Bart | Aug 12, 2008 2:17:50 PM
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