Category Archives: regular

<BEGIN Research Request> Is there any useful precedent for a “No lobbying pledge”? There are a number of people who have been fishing around for the most effective way to do this, and some candidates for Congress who have begun … Continue reading →

Rick Hasen responded to my response to his question. I return the favor here.  Once again, and nicely summarized by him, I don’t like the non-transparency of AE. I have criticized it and I agree it should be criticized. But my … Continue reading →

The great Rick Hasen tweets:  Hey @Lessig, do you still support #AmericansElect given their transparency problem? t.co/cK2bt78E t.co/INgztOmh I’ve spun through stages in my thinking about Americans Elect. As I describe in One Way Forward, at first I was not … Continue reading →

I was very happy to see a review in the New York Review of Books of Republic, Lost. (My first in that publication, ever!). Ezra Klein of the Washington Post does a nice job in surfacing a critical part of … Continue reading →

The standard line of the political pundits is that Americans don’t care about the corruption of their government. That the issue doesn’t, as I was lectured by panelists on a Dan Rather show, “move any votes.” I don’t buy it. … Continue reading →

I was on @MorningJoe today with @BuddyRoemer, talking about (surprise, surprise) money in politics. Mika asked me whether I thought that in 2008, Obama was a Roemer-like reformer. Of course he was!, I said. But then I said something that … Continue reading →

UPDATE #2: (Wonderfully) Byliner has decided to remove DRM from the book. If you get it after tomorrow, it should be DRM free.  UPDATE: A print on demand version of the book will be available Monday. Thanks to Byliner for … Continue reading →

I’m a critic of Citizens United. I’m a supporter of an amendment to reverse it (among other things). I’m even (sort of) a supporter of an amendment to declare “corporations are not persons.” But I am not a supporter of any … Continue reading →

I’ve referred a number of times to a survey that the Global Strategy Group did for us last year about the public’s perception of the role of money in politics. Seventy-five percent affirm that “campaign contributions buy results in Congress.” … Continue reading →

I wrote a short reply piece to an essay by the German politician Ansgar Heveling about the SOPA/PIPA war. I hadn’t realized they would translate the piece. Here is the original.  The original version of this referred to Heveling as a “minister.” … Continue reading →