Should Our Legal System Use Wikipedia as a Source?
In doing my daily round of reading up on any news related to Web 2.0, I came across an interesting article in the Yale Daily News about a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice who used Wikipedia as a source in an 84-page opinion legalizing same-sex marriage. In writing the document, Justice Richard Palmer used Wikipedia as a source for the number of openly gay members of the United States Congress. There are no official records for gay Congressmen.
The Yale Daily News took it an additional step and searched all federal and state decisions for Wikipedia and discovered that 247 decisions have cited the popular online resource.
The problem? Using Wikipedia as a source is the equivalent of saying, "I heard in the cafeteria..."
Anyone can write a Wikipedia entry. While Wikipedia is a great resource, it is best used as a starting point in research, not an ending point, and the best entries provide a source for all factual information disclosed in the article.
In this case, the number of currently-serving and openly-gay members of the U.S. Congress did not contain a reference to any source for that fact. So, what we have is a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice using an anonymous person who may or may not have any expertise as the source for a fact without any data to support that fact.
I doubt I could get that past a high school teacher. Should our Justice Department be held to a lesser standard?
Suggested Reading:
I would just like to ask why does it matters what gender anyone prefers if he or she is doing his or her job.I’m not perfect but I try to be the best person I can possibly be and do my best at any job I have and whether I like males or females doesn’t have anything to do with the work that I do,as for looking up what I do or don’t off the job has nothing to do with anything at the job and no one should have the right to check me out as far aswhat gender I like.
From a woman that prefers men
Not only could you not get it past a high school teacher, you could not get it past this elementary school computer teacher. My fourth graders are specifically taught that Wikipedia is NOT to be used as a source. I invite the Supreme Court Justice to my classroom to learn with my students why you should not count on Wikipedia.