The link to the scan no longer works. It has been replaced with an obscene picture of Kermit and a rabbit ;)
Alternate (stll working) source: http://legalgeekery.com/2009/04/19/leaked-2010-us-news-top-law-schools/

<blockquote>The link to the scan no longer works. It has been replaced with an obscene picture of Kermit and a rabbit ;)
Alternate (stll working) source: http://legalgeekery.com/2009/04/19/leaked-2010-us-news-top-law-schools/</blockquote>
What is more obscene...the picture or the ranking?

<blockquote>What is more obscene...the picture or the ranking?</blockquote>

Salut Koala!
The Kermit picture is actually funny ;-) So by default, the credited answer is the rankings :p

For the record, what I think is obscene isn't the fact the rankings are being leaked (fake or not), what I believe is obscene is the official US News rankings themselves and how much recruiters rely on them when making their hiring decisions.

And I can't stress people enough to read Professor Seto's study http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=937017
Yes I know it's the third time I've linked to it in this thread but some of its findings are striking.
For example, when estimating how much law schools spend on their students, US News takes into account the Cost of life. So if NYC or DC are 30% more expensive than Durham (where Duke is located), whenever Columbia or Georgetown spend $100, US News counts it as if they've actually only spent $70. Now it's true that DC and NYC are more expensive, but not everything is 30% more expensive in DC or NYU.
This issue, along with "direct spending per student" is the ONLY reason why Yale has consistently been ranked above Harvard. The 5 to 9 points score difference between Yale and Harvard is due to how US News calculates spending per student.

Likewise, total spendings are divided by the amount of students. In other words, according to US News, facilities for 200 students cost exactly twice as much as for 100 students. Which again isn't true, a building for 200 students may cost only 50% more than a building for 100 students, etc.

It's also surprising to find out that tuition fees have been consistently increasing (well above inflation) and almost every JD applicant are being granted some scholarship (even if as little as 2k or 5k), why? because these re-injected tuition fees then get accounted by US News as "spending per student".