Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

The Onion weighs in.

Congratulations to Victoria Hughes, President of the Bill of Rights Institute, on being named the new President of the Philadelphia Society. I have been honored to work side-by-side Victoria in building the Bill of Rights Institute, and am delighted for both Victoria and the Philadelphia Society. An interesting collection of materials on the Philadelphia Society, […]

An update on Marquette’s mascot controversy.

Amusing story about the (in)famous Pedro’s South of the Border, an iconic stop on I-95.

One more point on the dissent of Justice Abraham Simpson Stevens in the wine case–his dissent is truly one of the more idiosyncratic opinions I recall reading. Is that me and my colleagues at the FTC he has in mind in referring to those youngins engaged in this newfangled policy analysis? Today many Americans, paricularly […]

I don’t really have much to add, except that the majority got it exactly right in this case in its analysis of the dormant Commerce Clause, 21st Amendment, and policy considerations. The reasoning seems virtually identical to the articles I have written on this, so I won’t belabor it here. As for Kennedy, I think […]

The Supreme Court has just handed down its opinion in the wine case. SCOTUSblog has it. My most recent article on wine regulation and the commerce clause has been posted on the website of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty. It is available here. An updated version of the article should be available soon. […]

I just came across an interesting concurring opinion by Justice Parker from the Alabama Supreme Court from just a couple of days abo. Justice Parker’s opinion begins as follows: “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177 […]

After how much I disliked the last two Star Wars movies, I was relieved to read this review in Variety of “Revenge of the Sith”.

Yes, believe it or not, Maryland is concerned that gas stations aren’t charging consumers a high enough price for gasoline, so they have ordered local gas stations to raise their prices: A gasoline price war erupted in St. Mary’s County last week after one station slashed its price for regular to $1.999 a gallon and […]

Interesting article in the Washington Times this morning on the Congressional Black Caucus and their growing tendency to buck Democratic Party leadership and to vote independently on certain important pieces of legislation, namely the bipartisan Bankruptcy Reform legislation and the repeal of the estate tax. The article notes that about one-quarter of the caucus (10 […]

The Program in Economics, Politics and the Law at the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy is holding a Conference on the Political Economy of Terrorism at George Mason University School of Law on Tuesday, May 24 and Wednesday, May 25, 2005. Information about the program is available here. The papers will be published […]

TaxProf Blog took note of my post a few weeks back on taxes and bankruptcy filings. I observed that there was little good empirical evidence on the effect of tax liabilities on bankruptcy, but that tax liaiblities are a factor in as much as 10% of bankruptcy filings, more than college expenses, death in the […]

This is a couple of years old, but I just stumbled across it. It is a lecture by Andrew Sullivan on Oakeshott. I love the way that Sullivan captures the experience and feeling of reading Oakeshott, the richness of the Oakeshott reading experience. Consider this passage: Oakeshott loved Shakespeare. In all the odd and quirky […]

No I’m not kidding. You can get it here. Offering tips on how to keep personal information secure.