Concentrated wealth is the enemy of democracy. As the great jurist Louis Brandeis is reputed to have said, “America has a choice. We can either have great wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have a democracy. But we cannot have both.”
Professor Lawrence Lessig, one of the most important experts on the problem of money influence, will provide a multi-prong approach to this serious challenge to democracy. Most Americans understand and deplore how money’s influence dims our voices in favor of powerful self-interest. How to address this complex issue will be a key part of this discussion. What can we do?
To RSVP for the Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2bBaIgFnToii637JnhaUwg
To watch the event on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/NFRPP/live_videos/
This event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST on Thursday, February 27, 2025
Speaker:
Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Harvard, he taught at Stanford Law School, where he founded the Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. He holds an honorary degree from the University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada, UCLouvain, Belgium, Lund Univeristy, Sweden, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada, Amsterdam University, Amsterdam.
Lessig is the founder of Equal Citizens and a founding board member of Creative Commons. He serves on the Scientific Board of AXA Research Fund, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has received numerous awards including a Webby, the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award, Scientific American 50 Award, and Fastcase 50 Award.
Lessig’s early work focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. His current work addresses the failure of democracy, and innovations to reform democracy.
He is the author of hundreds of articles and essays, and a dozen books, including: They Don’t Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy (2019), Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution (2019), America, Compromised (2018), Republic, Lost v2(2015), The USA is Lesterland (2014), One Way Forward (2012), Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It (2011), Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008), Code v2 (2006), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001), and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999).
Lessig holds a BA in economics and a BS in management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in philosophy from Cambridge University, and a JD from Yale.
Event Co-sponsors: