Federal Senior U.S. District Judge Kane of the District of Colorado offered curious readers of judicial opinions an excursion into the world of adult-oriented judicial opinions in Martin v. Cuny. In a case involving a copyright dispute over a photograph of a man and a woman engaging in oral sex, Judge Kane, in a footnote, provided a bibliography of judicial opinions that have titillated law students for decades:
Given its subject matter, this opinion may join certain cases with obscure citations found in well-thumbed volumes in law school libraries. These cases are favorites of second year law students imprisoned in libraries and seeking diversion from the boredom of yet another year of highly touted and low-yielding case method of instruction. Having known a law professor, now thankfully of emeritus status, who assigned students to locate these cases as an exercise in legal research, I list a few to bring them into the age of computers and political correctness through the back door.
[The list of citations is omitted. Some of the cases are gross, including the one my classmates and I all tracked down wa-aa-ay back when we were 2Ls. Lawhaha.com is much more family friendly than the Federal Supplement. At the end of the citation list, the judge said:]
If you find each of these cases you are entitled to join the law review; if your law school library doesn’t have all of them, you should transfer at once.
A professor actually assigned these cases? No surprise he was an emeritus.
— Martin v. Cuny, 887 F. Supp. 1390, 1392 n.1 (D. Colo. 1995). Thanks to Richard McKewen.
Leave a Reply