Request for Leave to Participate as Amicus Curiae
TO: THE MINNESOTA COURT OF APPEALS
Following Rule 129 of Minn. R. Civ. App. P, Robert H. Bork and Robert E. Litan, scholars of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies (“AEI-Brookings”), request leave to file a brief amicus curiae in support of Appellant BASF Corporation and to recommend that this Court reverse the judgment below.
Nature of Applicant’s Interest
Applicants’ interest in this case reflects a broad public policy perspective. AEIBrookings was established by the American Enterprise Institute (“AEI”) and the Brookings Institution (two leading “think tanks”) in 1998 to help improve the economic regulatory process. The AEI, founded in 1943, sponsors original research relating to policy issues affecting the foundations of a free society, including competitive free enterprise in the open market. The Brookings Institution, founded in 1916, also promotes scholarship to improve the quality of U.S. public policies. Both institutions are independent, non-partisan, non-profit organizations which support and publish the work of first rank scholars. We, as individual applicants, participate as scholarly experts in studies of the costs and benefits of various regulatory initiatives and programs, as well as judicial proceedings that have regulatory implications, such as this case. We have both filed several briefs stating public interest positions in U.S. courts. This appeal concerns a significant departure from settled law that can have important implications for economic regulation throughout the United States.
