NYRB:

In truth, what makes this field of law so difficult is that the tensions cannot be avoided by categorical or definitional rejections of the valid concerns on both sides of the debate. Teachout’s important new book reminds us that corruption—in its more expansive sense of excessive private interest undermining public virtue—poses very real risks to a functioning democracy, risks that were foreseen at the founding, and that have preoccupied politicians, statesmen, and jurists for the entire course of our nation’s history. Today’s Court has sought to deny those concerns through a definitional strategy that cannot be squared either with that history or with the actual effects of money on our politics. Teachout’s intervention does not provide all the answers, but is a much-needed corrective. Only when the Court begins to grapple with the full extent of the dangers of corruption will its campaign finance jurisprudence truly reflect the competing values at stake.