I realize that many Conspiracy blog readers are new, and weren’t around as most of the conspirators joined up. Let me then briefly mention a bit about each of the conspirators (plus those who are off the blog due to government service) and how we came to be blogging together. Here’s the list in rough chronological order.
Former (but I hope only temporarily former) conspirator Sasha and I met through our parents. He worked for several years as a think-tanker, for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Reason Foundation, and is just about to finish up a 6-year J.D./Ph.D. (economics) program at Harvard, and to start clerking for my former boss, Judge Alex Kozinski (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit).
Michelle Boardman is a lawprof at George Mason University School of Law; I met her back in the mid-1990s, when she was externing for Kozinski during law school (she went on to clerk after law school for Judge Frank Easterbrook). Her superpower (I set aside her being the best-looking of the Conspirators, since that’s a very low bar, though she exceeds it by a very great margin): She actually enjoys insurance law.
Former (but again I hope only temporarily former) conspirator Todd Zywicki also externed for Kozinski, though a few years before I clerked. He’s also a lawprof at George Mason, specializing mostly in bankruptcy law but also other stuff, but is now on leave directing the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Policy Planning.
Juan Non-Volokh and Philippe de Croy are international persons of mystery. The only thing I reveal about them is that neither of them is a pseudonym for any of the other cobloggers.
Erik Jaffe is a solo appellate lawyer in D.C., and a former clerk for Judge Douglas Ginsburg and, several years later, Justice Thomas. I met him back in 1994, through my friend Rob Wick, who had clerked for Judge Reinhardt when I was clerking for Judge Kozinski.
Former (but yet again I hope only temporarily former) conspirator Orin Kerr worked for three years as a federal computer crime prosecutor, then taught at George Washington University Law School, where he specialized in criminal law and cyberspace law, among other things. He’s now on leave from GW, clerking for Justice Kennedy. I have no recollection exactly how I met him — it was one of the multiply intersecting D.C. Lawyer Cliques that I hang out with. In any case, I’ve known him for years.
David Post is a lawprof at Temple University Law School, where he specializes in cyberspace law. He’s a former anthropology professor who then went to law school, clerked for then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, worked for several years as a lawyer, and then clerked for Justice Ginsburg when she was elevated — I met him when we were both clerking at the Court.
David Bernstein is yet another George Mason lawprof, who writes about free speech law, equal protection law, civil rights laws, torts, evidence, and lots of other things. I forget where we met, but it must have been through the Very Small Libertarian Lawprof Conspiracy; I’ve known him for about eight years, I suspect. I’ve always liked his work, and when I saw that he started blogging, I invited him to be assimilated to the borg — er, blog.
I have never met Jacob Levy, who’s a political science professor at Chicago; I don’t think we’ve ever even talked on the phone. But I thought his blog was great, and also invited him to join us.
Randy Barnett is a lawprof at Boston University School of Law, and I think one of the two leading libertarian constitutional law scholars in the country (Richard Epstein is the other). I know him much the same way I know David.
Russell Korobkin is a colleague of mine at UCLA; his main specialties are negotiation and law and behavioral science. Probably the furthest left Conspirator, which probably puts him pretty much in the middle of the American road.
Tyler Cowen teaches economics at George Mason; he specializes in cultural economics, and also in eating tasty ethnic food. I took great advantage of his ethnic dining guide when I was visiting Mason in Fall 2001. I know him through Michelle, with whom he’s close friends. Special bonus: He’s married to a Russian woman, which I heartily approve of, because we Russkies need love too.
Stuart Benjamin is a lawprof at Duke, where he does mostly free speech law and communications law. He clerked for Justice Souter a while ago, but I think I met him at an American Association of Law Schools conference several years back. His superpower, which I much envy: He can eat an utterly amazing amount and not gain a pound.
Benjamin Volokh is the smartest one of the lot, and too smart to waste his time posting much just now.
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