Justice Kennedy: "I will look in Corpus Juris Secundum or ALR or something."

So said Justice Kennedy about "licensing" in yesterday's oral argument in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting. Link to the compete transcript at SCOTUSblog. For details and analysis, see CUNY Law's Professor of Law & University Distinguished Professor Ruthann Robson's Constitutional Law Prof Blog post, Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting Oral Argument Analysis: An Arizona Immigration Statute Before the Supreme Court.

Justice Kennedy's statement prompts any number of questions:

• Does Justice Kennedy's law clerks know what "CJS or ALR or something" is? Will they run to the Court's library staff for help? Call a West reference attorney?
• Will West's editoral staffer(s) responsible for writing the CJS, ALR or "something," if it gets cited by SCOTUS, receive a cash bonus, a free lunch, a better parking spot, an employee of the day award, 10 shares of TRI stock, a five minute tour of the executive floor or a "good job" email from TRI CEO Tom Glocer? (Horrors, what if a LexisNexis print title is cited instead!)
• Will some law prof write up something quickly on the topic and post it on SSRN before grading final exams in the off chance that it might be cited by SCOTUS? Perhaps a blog post on The Volokh Conspiracy? Even better, a tweet because SCOTUS hasn't cited one yet.
• Will the issue be used in LRW class assignments across the legal academy next semester?
• Will a law librarian check out how many entries down the WestlawNext output display, a relevant "CJS or ALR or something" in the secondary literature is listed?

[JH]