Slate has just posted my latest Jurisprudence column. It begins:

What’s the point of disclosing campaign donations? With all the controversy still swirling around whether the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using foreign money to fund its $75 million effort to support Republican Congressional candidates, the secrecy of Karl Rove’s new political groups, and the emergence of new groups with anodyne-sounding names like the “Coalition to Protect Seniors,” it’s worth stepping back and asking why federal law requires campaign finance disclosure in the first place. Do we still need these laws? Do they work the way they’re supposed to?