"Bloggers and the Courts"

Yesterday, at the Annual Meeting of the 7th Circuit Bar Association in Milwaukee, I participated in a panel discussion on "The New Media:  Bloggers and the Courts."  The panel was Judge Diane Sykes, Ann Althouse, Eugene Volokh, Christine Hurt (her account of the event is here), Jason Czarnezki, and -- of course -- the blawgfather, Howard Bashman.  (I also got to have lunch with Simon Dodd, another blogger and frequent law-blog commenter.) 

The conversation touched on the usual question (e.g., "will blogs replace law reviews?"), but also got me thinking more about the "why do you blog / who is your audience?" questions.  I suggested that one of the things I try to do with blogging -- and the group blogs to which I contribute, being "group blogs" consisting of people who often disagree, make this easier -- is to show my students that it remains possible, even in our red v. blue age, without retreating entirely to superficiality, to hash things out -- non-trivial things -- with people with whom one disagrees.   Like the Prawfs motto says, "just some friends trying to get the arguments right."

UPDATE:   Simon Dodd has a very detailed account, here.