Justice Dylan

Well Bob Dylan has long been hailed as a great lyricist, if not always as a great vocalist. And it turns out that judges in courts throughout the land agree.

Back in July (the things you miss when you're on vacation huh? Um, totally worth it) Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS, like POTUS) cited Dylan in his dissent to a case that the NY Times described as "an achingly boring dispute between pay phone companies and long distance carriers"

The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing, ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).

Rolling Stone chimed in as did the online self described legal tabloid Above the Law. Everyone was all too happy to point out that the quote isn't quite right. While online lyric sheets, including Dylan's website, agree with the cite Rolling and the others say if you listen to the words its actually a double negative cause really 'When you ain't got nothing...'

In another interesting tidbit you'll find in the stories Dylan is the most cited musician leading his closest competition, Paul Simon, 26-8.

I got to this story while catching up on the Freakonmics blog.

If you want to see the whole researched paper follow this link.

Every time I see Dubya speak I hear the lyrics to Idiot Wind in my head...