I gotta agree, it's a classic change-of-subject maneuver.
Suppose we take the gouging law completely off the table, leave nothing but notoriety and public choice. DE and the von Mises crowd would still be bellyaching about the purported horrid pernicious influence of the free speech of those rotten liberals, and how they should all be made to preach the Gospel of Hazlitt.
Please. Gimme a break.
A "freedom" isn't worth spit that can't stand up to this.
Suppose we take the gouging law completely off the table, leave nothing but notoriety and public choice.
It would not change a thing. Public opinion has been wrong before. If public opinion persecutes the free market in essential goods, then public opinion is wrong.