04/05/2017

SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/NEIL GORSUCH; “It’s probably naive to think that there could be a nuanced conversation about Judge Neil Gorsuch’s citation of sources in his 2006 book, ‘The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.’ But that’s precisely what we need.
There’s no doubt that in at least one extended passage, Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, copied wording from an article in the Indiana Law Journal with only trivial changes and without citing the article. There’s even a footnote that’s replicated verbatim from the article, down to the exact same use of ellipses in citing a pediatrics textbook. In academic settings, this would be considered plagiarism, albeit of a fairly minor kind. And the citation of the textbook — a primary source — while failing to cite the article — a secondary source — implies knowing borrowing, rather than an accident.
Yet it’s also true, as Gorsuch’s defenders are insisting, that the unattributed borrowing seems to consist only of the presentation of rather dry facts — and not any argument or original idea borrowed without attribution, which would be heavy-duty plagiarism. The defenders are also right that this sort of paraphrase is actually fairly common in judicial opinions and even some legal academic writing. It’s poor form not to cite a secondary source from which you’ve mined primary sources. But it’s also not the end of the world, or a profound violation of the sort that would call Gorsuch’s integrity or judgment into question.”

-Noah Feldman, “Gorsuch’s Plagiarism Is Worthy of Embarrassment,” Bloomberg, April 5, 2017