Why 'The Volokh Conspiracy'?

A few people have asked why I named this blog The Volokh Conspiracy. (A few others have said they liked the name.) The blog began back in 2002 as The Volokh Brothers, but when I realized I wanted us to grow, I had to change the last word.

I thought "The Volokh Gang," but then I thought some people might see it as derivative of the then-running political talk show "Capital Gang." I thought "The Volokh Group," but then I thought some people might see it as derivative of "The McLaughlin Group." I also realized that the names were derivative of those shows, so I consciously looked for something different.

Conspiracy struck me as unusual, memorable and a little (okay, only a little) amusing. First, I liked the incongruity of a conspiracy actually publicly announcing itself as a conspiracy. Second, it echoed "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," to which we belong, and also "The Jewish Conspiracy," to which most of the charter members and since then most of the more recent members have also belonged. But at the same time, as a self-chosen label, it also slightly mocked the term (just as many conservatives' embrace of the label "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" slightly mocks the term, which was apparently popularized by Hillary Clinton).

So that's how it came about, and I think it's worked well for us. And, hey, no prosecutors have started investigating us yet under 18 U.S.C. § 371—at least to our knowledge.