Ethiopian woman denied asylum by Homeland Security -- based on a Wikipedia article

[thewayne]

*head goes all splodey*

Now, I'm a huge Wikipedia fan. I think it's a tremendous information resource, but it is definitely not authoritative. I'm not going to go there to find out how to reattach a severed limb. But basing a legal decision on it?

Geez, get a clue, people!

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/asylum-seeker-r.html

Comments

[silveradept]

Guh. We go over the credibility and authenticity of source in the very first biblio instruction class we give... and then repeat it several times afterward during the years until it (hopefully) sinks in. That there's someone working in that kind of job that doesn't know how to evaluate sources is frightening.

[deborak]

At least they're attempting to seek out a precedent. Most of the time judges just pull the answer out of their ass. Perhaps they should try Yahoo Answers next time. (Obviously, this doesn't even raise my eyebrows given the level of incompetence I attribute to our institutions.)