Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

The reviews I have read of the PBS series Guns, Germs, and Steel have been fairly negative, especially regarding the entertainment value of the show. As a result, I was almost going to skip watching it on tv, but I liked the book so much when I read it, I thought I would go ahead […]

A reader sends this along: Since you’ve blogged several times about font and layout standards for briefs, I thought you might be interested in (or maybe just interested in posting about) what I think is a very clear and informative article about how typography and layout affect readability in the context of legal documents. The […]

Conglomerate asks, “If You Could Choose Only One Book For Prospective Law Students, What would it be?” I would answer F.A. Hayek, Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Volume 1, Rules & Order. In this book, Hayek sets out the “spontaneous order” theory of the common law. I like it because it is implicitly a defense of […]

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Great discussion by Lynne Kiesling analyzing the FTC Report and further info on the effect of boutique fuel requirements on gas prices.

Ann Althouse asks, “Is science-hating a phenomenon of the left or the right?” She has specially requested comments from readers on her site: I would love to hear, in the comments, from readers who have found themselves in college courses where instructors taught about sexuality and pressured students to accept theories of culture and actively […]

Thoughtful interview with Notre Dame Law Professor Rick Garnett, reflecting on clerking for Chief Justice Rehnquist and various issues surrounding the appointment of a new Justice.

While we all sit waiting for an eventual nominee, I thought I would fill the time with a joke making the rounds in some conservative legal circles: Q: Do you know the translation for “Gonzales”? A: It’s Spanish for “Souter.” (Insert rimshot).

In an earlier post, I noted Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s argument that if people don’t like Kelo, they should propose a constitutional amendment. Here’s one, proposed by Tom Bell. (I express no opinion on whether this would work or would be politically feasible.)

A reader asks in response to my post on the elaborate 7th Circuit brief formatting rules: I still can’t figure out why the Supreme Court is still caught up in the ridiculous 6×9 printed format for briefs when every single other court in the country accepts regular paper from a laser printer. Does anyone know […]

One of our intrepid Commenters on my earlier post on the “ruler incident” mentions the 7th Circuit’s remarkable treatise on brief formatting rules. Quite a work to behold.

The Washington Post has started a blog for the coming “Campaign for the Supreme Court.” Here’s an entry from this morning (from their subcategory “borkometer”): Poor Sap “It’s going to be awful. I really feel sorry for the poor sap who gets the nomination,” John Danforth, a former GOP senator from Missouri who shepherded Clarence […]

The Washington Post assesses Bork’s shadow: While conservatives still nurse grievances, liberals hold up the Block Bork campaign as a heroic moment in modern politics. “Keeping him off the Court ranks among the most important achievements of the progressive coalition over the past seven decades,” Ralph G. Neas, who led the anti-Bork battle, wrote in […]

An informative update on the current state of the question of FEC regulation of bloggers and the extension of the media exemption to bloggers in today’s Washington Post here.

A good economist like Larry Summers always knows that the real cost of any expenditure is not the out-of-pocket expenditure, but the opportunity cost of what the money could otherwise be used for. In case Harvard alumni donors and tuition-paying parents were wondering what Harvard could have done with $50 million (other than, of course, […]