WASHINGTON — They are some of the rarest bobblehead dolls ever produced. They’re released erratically. They’re given away for free, not sold. And if you get a certificate to claim one, you have to redeem it at a Washington law office.
The limited edition bobbleheads of US Supreme Court justices are the work of law professor Ross Davies, who has been creating them for the past 10 years. When finished, copies arrive unannounced on the real justices’ desks, secreted there by unnamed confederates. And fans will go to some lengths to get one.
‘‘I think we take seriously trying to do them well,’’ said Davies, a law professor at Virginia’s George Mason University and the editor of an entertaining quarterly legal journal called The Green Bag.
Subscribing to the journal is one way to get a voucher to claim a bobblehead when they are released, but there’s no guarantee. The journal also hands out some bobbleheads to non-subscribers, including law school public interest groups that auction them at fund-raisers. Some ultimately are sold on eBay.
The justices themselves seem to have been charmed by their caricatures.
Antonin Scalia once said in an interview that he understands his is the most popular.