bob dylan, constitutional law consultant

In a recent dissenting opinion on a rather torpor-inducing Supreme Court case (the subject matter, I believe, was pay phones and long-distance calls), Chief Justice John Roberts, spurning the tradition of citing previous cases as precedent, wrote instead:

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).

Dylan tops the list of popular musicians cited in judicial opinions with 26 hits; next is Paul Simon with 8 (or, when combined with Simon & Garfunkel, 12), followed by Bruce Springsteen with 5. William Rehnquist, Roberts’s predecessor, was given to the citation of Gilbert & Sullivan, but Roberts’s citation marks the first use of popular rock lyrics to support a Supreme Court opinion.

See the NY Times piece on the citation here.