Big Money Unleashed - (Chicago Law and Society) by Ann Southworth (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Southworth examines the composition, development, organization, and intellectual underpinning of the legal movement that has worked to cripple campaign finance regulation...Southworth's book provides a useful, historical guide to what reformers need to do."-- "Political Science Quarterly"

"Big Money Unleashed explores the principles and arguments advanced by the conservative legal movement, including the constitutional frames--the amalgamations of ideas, analogies, understandings, assumptions, and ultimately constitutional interpretations--that have proven decisive in the landmark campaign finance cases...Southworth deserves high praise for exposing how an oligarchic legal movement co-opted the arguments of the Civil Rights Movement and reversed the gains of the campaign finance movement. Americans who still wish to achieve freedom, equality, and representation for all citizens, regardless of wealth, can finally learn what they are up against."-- "Perspectives on Politics"

"There is a wealth of historical information available here to those seeking to understand how our campaign finance system has evolved (or devolved) over the past half century."-- "Lawfare"

"Illuminating. . . [Big Money Unleashed] offers insight into what veteran campaign finance lawyers were thinking as they looked back a few years after the Supreme Court's 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission."-- "Reason"

"[Big Money] is a testament to Southworth's careful scholarship and status as a scholar both sides respect that she was able to gain access to lawyers on this deeply polarizing political issue. The result is a rich and penetrating account of how lawyers on the right mobilize law for social change in contemporary America, using a playbook honed by left-wing organizations during the Civil Rights Era to weaken progressive causes and political power."--Scott L. Cummings "Jotwell"

"The book is very well written and meticulously documented. Every research library should have a copy."-- "Choice"

"Drawing on over fifty interviews with lawyers in the trenches, Big Money Unleashed details the decades-long battle to leverage the First Amendment in order to corrode the guardrails that protect our democracy from the influence of personal and corporate mega-money. Carefully researched and compellingly argued, Big Money Unleashed is a must-read for lawyers, academics, and everyday citizens concerned for our democracy."--Amanda Hollis-Brusky coauthor of "Separate but Faithful: The Christian Right's Radical Struggle to Transform Law & Legal Culture"

"How did the Supreme Court become a major obstacle to the regulation of money in elections? Big Money Unleashed shows us how the sausage got made in this critical area of First Amendment doctrine. This incisive, deeply researched study by a premier scholar of conservative legal mobilization illuminates the long-game strategies and processes that are transforming American constitutional law and politics."--Ken I. Kersch Boston College

"Ann Southworth's Big Money Unleashed is a tour de force, a must-read account of how lawyers and their clients weaponized the First Amendment to allow big money to flow into American politics despite repeated congressional efforts to stanch its flow. Southworth takes us behind the scenes to see the strategies used by lawyers, and their calculated interactions with judges and clients, to make profound and deleterious legal and social change."--Richard L. Hasen author of "A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy"

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.