#misc phj

[jossey-blog]

Larry Lessig: Tammany Hall’s 2016 Presidential Candidate

They were heady days. Over the 2014 July 4th weekend Harvard law professor and now Democrat presidential candidate Larry Lessig celebrated the results of his grand political crowdfunding experiment. The cyber-law guru had set the holiday deadline to raise $6 million dollars to seed a Super PAC that would elect candidates vowing to end the corrupting influence of political money. Mayday PAC would be ‘the Super PAC to end all Super PACs.’

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Campaign Finance Restrictions Fit Like a Straitjacket

In the Sacramento Bee, Professor Jessica Levinson recently compared federal campaign finance to a custom-tailored suit ripped and shredded by a zealous Supreme Court and now badly in need government alterations. Her sartorial analogy, however, is too clever by half. For most, her preferred arrangement would function like a straitjacket. The current system may not be glove-snug, but it’s ‘reformer’ policies that created the tailoring dilemma.

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Larry Lessig: Lost in Middle Earth

Larry Lessig’s latest idea is for once apt — at least in its analogy to fantasy fiction. He has apparently given up on Mayday PAC’s original idea to elect reform-minded Congressmen and women, and now looks to the executive for deliverance. But Lessig’s change of focus does little to ameliorate the structural problems inherent in his misunderstanding of politics, myopic view of Americans, and lack of quantifiable evidence.

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Political Corruption, Equality, and Campaign Finance Reform — A Response to Larry Lessig

In the Atlantic last week, Harvard law professor Larry Lessig dissected Hillary Clinton’s prospects as a campaign finance reform torch carrier. Lessig argues the political system is inherently corrupt impeding America’s promise of equal citizenship. He wonders if Ms. Clinton can effectively champion reform given questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation and her status as a long-time Washington insider.

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Jossey: Citizens United hardly a boogeyman

January 31, 2015

Lynn Evans took to these pages to bemoan the effect of Citizens United v. FEC on the body-politic and the campaign finance system. Her thesis is emblematic of the case's common misrepresentations.

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