Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

The other day, Orin linked to the Harvard student survey of “best law schools.” Paul Caron has posted Professor Bernie Black’s response. The SSRN rankings are available here.

We have repeatedly marveled here at the discovery by some of a secret plot by conservatives and libertarians to reimpose the so-called “Constitution in Exile.” So secret, apparently, that advocates of the theory won’t even use the label in public (of course, they don’t seem to use it in private either…). Jesse Jackson is the […]

The other day I mentioned Jonathan Klick’s paper on the effects of mandatory waiting periods for abortions. Given the prominence of abortion in the news, I thought readers might be interested in another paper of his, co-authored with Thomas Stratmann, on the effects of parental notification laws before minors can get an abortion on “risky […]

The Washington Times reports.

Niclas Berggren, an Economics Professor in Sweden, is doing an on-line academic study and is seeking international participation. If you have a few minutes, I hope you will participate. The link and password info is provided in the message below. I am writing you to ask for your help in a scientific study I’m doing […]

Last weekend I finally read Freakonomics. If you haven’t read it yet, it really is just as good as it has been made out to be. And it can be read in a weekend. There is also a lot of great stuff recently on the Freakonomics blog. Just in time for Election Day tomorrow (check […]

A few days ago I posted on “Alito By the Numbers” and linked to a news column by John Lott. For those who may not have followed the subsequent Comments but may be interested, Frank and John have a vigorous dialogue in the Comments to that post. Check it out here if you are interested. […]

John Lott has some interesting numbers on Alito’s tenure on the Court of Appeals. I thought this was sort of interesting: Law professors Stephen Choi of New York University and Mitu Gulati of Georgetown University did a study of the circuit court judges appointed from the administration of presidents Jimmy Carter through the first term […]

Steve Bainbridge has a good post on the difference between Catholic judging versus legislating.

An early Gallup Poll on Alito here. Probably not worth much at this point, but here’s the summary (HT: Byron York at The Corner): About the same number of Americans rate Alito’s selection either excellent or good (43%) as rate it fair or poor (39%). Miers received a similar rating, but Roberts’ rating was somewhat […]

The sage political commentator Michael Barone predicts that Alito will be confirmed and that Democrats will not filibuster him either. The reason? The same northeastern Democrats who would be most likely to lead a filibuster because of the abortion issue are also those who have the most to fear from offending Italian-American constituents (as much […]

Now available.

And why he’s not “Scalito.” In today’s WSJ.

One of the more interesting elements of the Alito is what it says about the changing face of conservatism in the United States and the general drift of ethnic Catholics (some might say “urban Catholics”) toward the Republican Party. Alito, along with Scalia, now makes the second ethnic Catholic to be appointed to the Court […]

One of the privileges of being a professor is getting official college publications mailed right to my inbox. Here’s a highlight from today’s “George Mason E-Files“: Amazing Recycling Factoid Did you know that each day, the average American city-dweller consumes 15 pounds of fossil fuels, 150 gallons of water, 3.3 pounds of food, and produces […]