Wayne Logan: Cited in the Supreme Court

This is the second in a series of posts about scholars cited this term in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wayne Logan is the Gary & Sallyn Pajcic Professor of Law at the Florida State University College of Law.   A graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Law, he clerked for Justice Louis B. Meyer of the N.C. Supreme Court and Robert R. Merhige, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Congratulations on being cited in the Supreme Court.  What was the work and how was it used?

Knowledge as Power:  Criminal Registration and Community Notification Laws in America (Stanford Univ. Press 2009).

The majority [in United States v. Kebodeaux, 2013 WL 3155231 (U.S. 2013)] cited the book's history-related chapters to establish the longevity of state registration laws.

In your work, do you see the Supreme Court and other courts as the primary audience, are you writing for other scholars, or do you target both?

As a general matter, I hope that both audiences find my work useful. With Knowledge as Power, however, I did my best to write in an accessible style, which would appeal to lay readers as well as scholars and courts, given the broader interest and timeliness of the subject matter.

Do you do anything in particular to share your work with practitioners?

When doing CLEs and the like, I make a point of discussing my work whenever possible. It is often the case that members of the bench and bar are rather interested in the work of law professors, especially if it ties into issues they see at work and think about. 

What’s your reaction to the view expressed by some jurists that much legal scholarship is useless to the legal system?

I think the view does not gibe with reality. Of course, some scholarship does not directly bear on the work of courts and practitioners. However, much of the work of academic lawyers does have direct (or indirect) impact. This is especialy so in my area, criminal justice.

Are you happy with the way your work was used?

Yes.

What advice do you have for scholars who want their work to be influential in the courts?

While I certainly do not think court citations should drive one's scholarly focus, I would say that empirical and doctrinal work, synthesizing and analyzing the law's operation, and historical accounts (such as in my case), are the likely forms of scholarship to attract judicial attention.

Did your family or colleagues do anything for you when the opinion case out?

Nope.