Lucy Bernholz blogs, responding to my draft paper, Nonprofit Law as the Tool to Kill What Remains of Campaign Finance Law: Reluctant Lessons from Ellen Aprill:

In a nutshell, Professor Hasen uses Professor Aprill’s work to show the intellectual and legal history that will likely use religious freedom to deregulate political donations. How? Via the deregulation of political activity in churches and houses of worship. There’s much more to it (read the paper) but that gets us started. 

What does this mean for nonprofits? More politics. More money laundering. Less trust. 

What does it mean for democracy? More blurring of boundaries between nonprofit and commercial corporations. More anonymous money in politics. Less trust. More plutocratic control. 

It’s not a positive tale. But thanks to Professors Aprill and Hasen, we’ve been warned. So, what are we going to do about it?