International Law

Washington and Lee Law Professor Erik Luna found himself suddenly inundated with e-mails last week about an article he?d written 8 years ago. And it didn?t take long to discover why.

Actress Lindsay Lohan had tweeted the article, a critique of federal sentencing guidelines, after being sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating her probation on two drunk driving arrests in 2007. See here for the story in The News Leader. Here for the Daily Caller. (h/t: ABA Journal.)

Lohan was evidently unhappy about the 90 days, and so, after first bizarrely citing the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the pop icon broke Luna?s opening paragraph into tweet-size chunks and sent them hurtling through cyberspace:

November 1 marked the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. But there were no celebrations, parades, or other festivities in honor of this punishment scheme created by Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Instead, the day passed like most others during the last 15 years: Scores of federal defendants sentenced under a constitutionally perverted system that saps moral judgment through its mechanical rules.

Which is all well and good. Certainly, we have no objection to broad exposure for legal scholarship. It?s just that the article?s author says his article has almost no relevance for Lohan.

?There are a couple of problems with the reference to my paper. First, it?s dated. Since the paper?s publication in 2002, there has been a sea change in the law. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the sentencing scheme that had been the subject of my criticism,? he told The News Leader. ?More fundamentally, Ms. Lohan?s case is in the California state system, and my critique of federal sentencing has, at best, some oblique relevance to her plight.?

Despite the misuse of his work, Luna joked in an interview with the Daily Caller that his Internet fame might continue. ?I?m only hoping that Lady Gaga tweets about my Fourth Amendment work,? he said.

Luna did note to the News Leader that he was largely unfamiliar with Lohan?s work, outside of The Parent Trap, a 1998 film and a favorite of Luna?s nine-year-old daughter, Aubrey.

?I don?t believe Aubrey is familiar with subsequent chapters in Ms. Lohan?s career,? he told the News Leader, ?and that?s probably as it should be.?

via blogs.wsj.com