Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

The story of how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation—a history that began much earlier than most imagine.

Americans across party lines believe that public policy is rigged in favor of those who wield big money in elections. Yet, legislators are restricted in addressing these concerns by a series of Supreme Court decisions finding that campaign finance regulations violate the First Amendment.

Big Money Unleashed argues that our current impasse is the result of a long-term process involving many players. Naturally, the justices played critical roles—but so did the attorneys who hatched the theories necessary to support the legal doctrine, the legal advocacy groups that advanced those arguments, the wealthy patrons who financed these efforts, and the networks through which they coordinated strategy and held the Court accountable.

Drawing from interviews, public records, and archival materials, Big Money Unleashed chronicles how these players borrowed a litigation strategy pioneered by the NAACP to dismantle racial segregation and used it to advance a very different type of cause.

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Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

The story of how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation—a history that began much earlier than most imagine.

Americans across party lines believe that public policy is rigged in favor of those who wield big money in elections. Yet, legislators are restricted in addressing these concerns by a series of Supreme Court decisions finding that campaign finance regulations violate the First Amendment.

Big Money Unleashed argues that our current impasse is the result of a long-term process involving many players. Naturally, the justices played critical roles—but so did the attorneys who hatched the theories necessary to support the legal doctrine, the legal advocacy groups that advanced those arguments, the wealthy patrons who financed these efforts, and the networks through which they coordinated strategy and held the Court accountable.

Drawing from interviews, public records, and archival materials, Big Money Unleashed chronicles how these players borrowed a litigation strategy pioneered by the NAACP to dismantle racial segregation and used it to advance a very different type of cause.

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Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

by Ann Southworth
Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending

by Ann Southworth

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Overview

The story of how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation—a history that began much earlier than most imagine.

Americans across party lines believe that public policy is rigged in favor of those who wield big money in elections. Yet, legislators are restricted in addressing these concerns by a series of Supreme Court decisions finding that campaign finance regulations violate the First Amendment.

Big Money Unleashed argues that our current impasse is the result of a long-term process involving many players. Naturally, the justices played critical roles—but so did the attorneys who hatched the theories necessary to support the legal doctrine, the legal advocacy groups that advanced those arguments, the wealthy patrons who financed these efforts, and the networks through which they coordinated strategy and held the Court accountable.

Drawing from interviews, public records, and archival materials, Big Money Unleashed chronicles how these players borrowed a litigation strategy pioneered by the NAACP to dismantle racial segregation and used it to advance a very different type of cause.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780226830728
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 01/02/2024
Series: Chicago Series in Law and Society
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 336
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Ann Southworth is professor of law and codirector of the Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents

Introduction: $peech

Part 1: The Campaign
1. The Players and Process
2. Taking Campaign Finance Reform to Court
3. Charting a Better Path
4. Winning in the Roberts Court

Part 2: Themes and Implications
5. Strange Bedfellows?
6. Different Constitutional Universes
7. Issues of Accountability
8. Continuing Battles

Conclusion: Big Money Unleashed
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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