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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Will weighs in on IJ's 'taxi cartel' suit

Minneapolis has been much in the national news lately. Both Newsweek and The NewsHour on PBS covered the culture wars as exemplified at airport taxi stands and some supermarket checkouts and now George Will has weighed in on the Minneapolis "taxi cartel." I daresay he may have seen that catchy phrase in Nick Dranias's pleadings for the Institute for Justice.

The city opened up the number of taxi licenses, much to the chagrin of the existing license holders. The "cartel" now is suing for deprivation of an economic right, and the IJ has intervened. The IJ does get an approving mention in Will's column that ran in the Strib on Sunday. (For Minnesota Lawyer coverage of the IJ and the taxi cartel, click here, password required.)

2 comments:

Peter said...

If they were really interested in turning a phrase, they would call it a "cab cartel." Otherwise, that is a perfectly legitimate term for a monopoly that involves more than one company.

Mark Cohen, editor said...

I don't think Barb was questioning the legitimacy of the use of the term "cartel" here, I think she just wanted to give credit to the local guys at the Institute for Justice who were media savvy enough to use the term in all their press materials about the suit. The colorful "cartel" language got headlines all over -- headlines of which I am sure Mr. Will became aware when he researched his column.

That said, I think Peter's suggestion of "cab cartel" is great. I love a little aliteration.

Note to the Institute fo Justice: Perhaps pen Peter in for permanent place on payroll.