Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

Bruce Ackerman, writing in the L.A. Times today: In retrospect, Souter and Thomas have turned out very different. Souter has developed into a moderate conservative in the tradition of John Marshall Harlan, the great dissenter to many of the activist decisions of the Warren court, but a firm believer in the right to privacy and […]

Book listings on Amazon.com now list, among other things, “Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs)”. For instance, the listing for Bernard Malamud’s “The Natural,” contains these SIPs: “bassoon case, dugout steps”. Can someone enlighten me as to why Amazon provides this particular bit of information?

The final agenda for the July 14-15 Joint FTC-HHS Workshop on “Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity” has now been posted.

Shirley Abrahamson is a new addition to Tradesports Supreme Court Nominee market (at least I assume that is the correct Shirley Abrahamson). It isn’t clear why she was added to the market though, as no one has actually made a trade on her.

My intuition that there is little political gain to be had with Court appointments is reinforced by this story during the filibuster of the Miguel Estrada nomination, which reinforces my perception about the low salience of these sort of political questions regarding the courts: Mr. Bendixen’s poll found that 28 percent of Hispanics support the […]

Some, such as the Washington Post today, have argued that a possible Gonzales nomination forces the President to choose between two goals–making the Court more conservative vs. “reaching out” to Hispanics on behalf of the Republican Party. This seems to reflect the conventional wisdom. With respect to the latter, is there any evidence that Supreme […]

From Gail Heriot on the Right Coast.

Subject to all the usual caveats, an extensive discussion of a new Gallup Poll on the Supreme Court nomination. Lots of interesting stuff.

The FTC has released its report on gasoline prices. The Press Release and link to the report (as well as Comm. Liebowitz’s concurring statement) can be found here. From the Press Release: One of the Report’s conclusions is that over the past 20 years, changes in the price of crude oil have led to 85 […]

I suspect that there’s not much about the coming Supreme Court confirmation battle on which Peter Rubin and I will agree, but the fact that the filibuster deal will have little binding force on the nomination circus seems to be one. Commenting on the same Washington Post story I referenced this morning, Peter Rubin argues […]

It’s official.

There are many good things about living in Washington, D.C., but sometimes it all gets a bit tiresome: A free association exercise: Think of a Washington Nationals baseball cap. What’s the next thing that pops into your head? Some people think of the old Senators, whose caps inspired the new team’s logo. Some think of […]

“Vacancy Starts a Fundraising Race: Court Nomination Battle Could Rival 2004 Election’s Totals“: The effort to fill the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has already become a fundraising magnet for both left and right that promises to rival the 2004 presidential campaign for the rate of cash flow, if not […]

In a recent symposium published in the Richmond Law Review (available on Westlaw), Edith Jones commented on the judicial confirmation process: These observations would not be complete without some prediction of what the future will bring or some prescription to resolve the current impasse. In a previous article, I concluded that: The problems of judicial […]

As others have noted, Gonzalez futures at TradeSports exploded sometime yesterday. When I looked a couple of days ago, Garza was way ahead, trading at 30 with all others including Gonzalez) down in the low teens. Where Garza futures are headed also seems reflected in his large bid-ask spread. Gonzalez also has the most trades […]