Collectors give nod to justice bobbleheads

WASHINGTON — David Wolf's passion is constitutional law; his hobby is collecting. So when the Washington lawyer discovered a listing on eBay that would round out one of his collections, he forked over $2,100.

It was for a limited-edition, 8-inch poly-resin bobblehead of the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

"I don't know if I can explain it," Wolf said. "I'm obsessive."

Wolf also paid more than $800 for a Justice John Paul Stevens bobblehead after he realized that the one he owned was missing the small golf club in the figurine's right hand.

Wolf's fascination with Supreme Court bobbleheads is part of a small but growing craze that began in spring 2003, when The Green Bag — which describes itself as "an entertaining journal of law" — put out the Rehnquist figure.

Since then, the quarterly magazine, which publishes examinations of legal issues alongside tongue-in-cheek diatribes, has produced bobbleheads of Stevens (fall 2003), Sandra Day O'Connor (2004) and Antonin Scalia (2005). Anthony Kennedy is due next month.

Production will continue — most likely one a year — in order of tenure on the court, with David Souter next and continuing through the most recent appointee, Samuel Alito.

The popularity of bobbleheads has exploded in recent years. Alexander Global Promotions of Seattle, the nation's largest manufacturer of the spring-loaded figurines, says it has produced 27 million depictions of rock stars, cartoon characters and sports icons, among others, since 1999.

But the Supreme Court figures — also made by Alexander — are extremely rare, and they are given away at random by Green Bag editors.

The only person guaranteed to get one is the justice depicted. Most of the justice bobbleheads are awarded to Green Bag subscribers; others go to public-interest legal groups that use them as fundraisers. Some, like the ones Wolf snagged, end up on eBay.

"Supreme Court justices [are] the rock stars of the judiciary," said Montgomery Kosma, one of the journal's two executive editors and an antitrust lawyer.

What Green Bag Editor-in-Chief Ross Davies described as one of those "in-the-shower ideas" has sparked a cult following among legal geeks.

Besides being fun, the bobbles are meant to honor the justices and showcase the humor in an otherwise serious job. As befits legal esoterica, each figurine includes detailed annotations explaining the significance of the items depicted. The annotations — along with animated bobbles — are also on the publication's Web site, www.greenbag.org/bobbleheads.

Each justice holds the volume of United States Reports (the official publication of Supreme Court action) that contains one of his or her signature opinions — for example, Kennedy's in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that upheld the 1973 abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade, and Stevens' in Atkins v. Virginia, which in 2002 prohibited the execution of mentally retarded criminals.

The bobbles also capture the justices' quirks or interests. Scalia's brown shoes clash with his black judicial robe to show his attitude toward fashion; at O'Connor's feet is a bobblehead cow, in homage to her upbringing on a cattle ranch.

In Washington, with the help of cooperative law clerks, a completed doll appears unannounced on the justice's desk. "One of the things that's underappreciated about the justices: They're a pretty good-humored bunch," Davies said.

"Even though they're up on a pedestal, they haven't lost the ability to laugh at themselves."

"Comedy gives us all common ground," Kosma said. "Liberals and conservatives can laugh at a lot of the same things."

The bobbleheads have pushed up subscription numbers. In 2003, the journal had 700 subscribers. Today, it's about 1,500.

This year, Green Bag editors ordered 1,710 Kennedy renditions, compared with 1,008 for Rehnquist. The total cost for the Kennedy figurines was $8,595, a little more than $5 a doll.

That's a far cry from the $2,100 Wolf spent on his Rehnquist.

But Wolf learned his lesson after missing out on the chief justice. His decision to subscribe has paid off: He has received Stevens, O'Connor and Scalia free.

"I've read articles in The Green Bag, and I find it humorous," he said. "But I haven't sat down and read it cover to cover. ... I subscribe for the bobbleheads."