Truthiness and the Marble Palace

Authors

Chad M. Oldfather, Marquette University Law School
Todd C. Peppers, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Emory Law Journal Online

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

Tucked inside the title page of David Lat’s Supreme Ambitions, just after a note giving credit for the cover design and before the copyright notice, sits a standard disclaimer of the sort that appears in all novels: “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.” These may be the most truly fictional words in the entire book. Its judicial characters are recognizable as versions of real judges, including, among others, Alex Kozinski, Goodwin Liu, Stephen Reinhardt, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. Real-life bloggers including Tom Goldstein and Howard Bashman appear as themselves, and a blog called Beneath Their Robes, a clear reference to the blog that was Lat’s initial claim to fame (this time run by one of the protagonist’s bitter rivals) play a pivotal role in the plot.

Recommended Citation

Chad M. Oldfather & Todd C. Peppers, Truthiness and the Marble Palace, 65 Emory L.J. Online 2001 (2016).