CERLP | Ann Southworth Book Launch - Big Money Unleashed

The UCI Law Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession (CERLP) hosts a discussion with center Co-Director and Professor of Law Ann Southworth on her forthcoming book, Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending (Chicago, 2023).

Comments by:

John Bliss, Assistan Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Bryant Garth, Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and CERLP Co-Director, UCI Law
Richard L. Hasen, Professor of Law and Political Science and Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project, UCLA Law
Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law

Moderated by:

Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Professor of Law and CERLP Co-Director, UCI Law

Publisher's Description

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.

To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, please email centers@law.uci.edu.