UPDATE: Comments are now open (sorry about that).
With 180 votes cast, here are the top 25:
| 1. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices) |
| 2. Richard Posner loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 63–47 |
| 3. Ronald Dworkin loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 67–46, loses to Richard Posner by 67–51 |
| 4. Ronald Coase loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 61–40, loses to Ronald Dworkin by 54–53 |
| 5. Benjamin Cardozo loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 65–29, loses to Ronald Coase by 50–48 |
| 6. Louis D. Brandeis loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 69–22, loses to Benjamin Cardozo by 40–39 |
| 7. Karl N. Llewellyn loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 65–29, loses to Louis D. Brandeis by 46–44 |
| 8. Guido Calabresi loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 75–31, loses to Karl N. Llewellyn by 57–39 |
| 9. John Hart Ely loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 68–22, loses to Guido Calabresi by 56–38 |
| 10. Antonin Scalia loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 76–22, loses to John Hart Ely by 48–41 |
| 11. Alexander Bickel loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 71–17, loses to Antonin Scalia by 48–37 |
| 12. Cass R. Sunstein loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 79–18, loses to Alexander Bickel by 46–40 |
| 13. Richard Epstein loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 78–23, loses to Cass R. Sunstein by 47–42 |
| 14. William J. Brennan, Jr. loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 75–21, loses to Richard Epstein by 44–43 |
| 15. Henry M. Hart, Jr. loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 77–13, loses to William J. Brennan, Jr. by 46–33 |
| 16. Lon Fuller loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 72–20, loses to William J. Brennan, Jr. by 44–35 |
| 17. Laurence H. Tribe loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 76–18, loses to Lon Fuller by 46–34 |
| 18. Catharine A. MacKinnon loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 76–19, loses to Laurence H. Tribe by 44–37 |
| 19. Felix Frankfurter loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 81–11, loses to Lon Fuller by 41–28 |
| 20. Roscoe Pound loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 75–11, loses to Felix Frankfurter by 34–33 |
| 21. Bruce Ackerman loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 79–18, loses to Catharine A. MacKinnon by 44–39 |
| 22. Herbert Wechsler loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 75–12, loses to Bruce Ackerman by 35–33 |
| 23. Frank Easterbrook loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 80–14, loses to Herbert Wechsler by 37–28 |
| 24. John Henry Wigmore loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 77–9, loses to Frank Easterbrook by 36–30 |
| 25. John Marshall Harlan II loses to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by 77–11, loses to John Henry Wigmore by 29–26 |
Martha Nussbaum and Robert Bork were very close to making the top 25 as well.
What to say about the results? Would Hugo Black and Learned Hand--wrongly omitted from the original list of 75 choices--have made the top 25? Probably. I am personally surprised MacKinnon was not higher, so too Llewelly and Fuller and Wechsler. I was surprised by Ely's strong showing: Demoracy and Distrust was a very fine bit of constitutional theory, but what else is there? The top three seem right, including Dworkin, whose jurisprudential views may be a tissue of confusions and misrepresentations, but whose vision of constitutional adjudication in particular has been hugely influential on legal thought (if not on U.S. courts). (I have yet to find a constitutional theorist who takes him- or herself to be "influenced" by Dworkin who realizes that nothing in the bits and pieces of Dworkin they find important is at issue in Dworkin's purported dispute with legal positivism. Fortunately for Dworkin's influence, jurisprudential ignorance is deep and widespread!)
Here are the three law faculties that can claim the most scholars from the above list as faculty members for some significant portion of time:
University of Chicago (Posner, Coase, Llewellyn, Scalia, Sunstein, Epstein, Easterbrook, Nussbaum)
Harvard University (Ely, Sunstein [started last year, now on leave], Hart, Fuller, Tribe, Frankfurter, Pound)
Yale University (Dworkin, Calabresi, Ely, Bickel, Ackerman, Bork)
Columbia University (Llewellyn, Wechsler)
New York University (Dworkin, and Epstein starts part-time in 2010)
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