It is a useful thing sometimes to be a token liberal at a conservative academic conference. More than once I’ve found myself on a panel at which I wanted to talk about issues that I thought were at the heart of the event-sponsors’ views, but they then wanted to talk about different things entirely, things I wouldn’t expect to be on anyone’s agenda. Maybe that sort of thing reflects our siloed popular debate generally. When we actually talk to each other once in a while, we’re often surprised that we’ve been off in our corners talking about completely different things. Anyway, today again I’m interested in why this website’s editors chose this particular merger as a topic, much more so than I am in the merger itself.

Read the full piece here.

United States v. Apple has fascinated me continually ever since the instantly-sensational complaint was made public, more than three years ago. Just one small, recent manifestation of the larger theme that makes it so interesting is the improbable range of folks who apparently consider certiorari rather likely—not least some commenters here, and even SCOTUSblog, which listed the case on their “Petitions We’re Watching.” It seems improbable, I say, not because reasonable people couldn’t differ on the policy issues. In this day and age somebody pops up to doubt every antitrust case brought against anybody no matter what. Rather, on the traditional criteria, the case just seems really ill-suited for cert.

Read the full piece here.