NLJ: “A Harvard Law School professor’s idea on campaign finance reform took center stage at a Senate subcommittee hearing July 24, when he suggested holding “citizen conventions” to craft a constitutional amendment in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Lawrence Lessig, who also directs Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, testified that conventions of 300 randomly selected people, held in four areas of the country, could act as a citizens’ jury of how to respond in the wake of the 2010 decision. Americans will not trust Congress or a ‘blue ribbon’ panel to do what is right, Lessig said, because they ‘can’t believe the institution has the capacity to change itself to deal with the core problem.'”

I address Lessig’s ideas for fixing campaign financing in Fixing Washington, 126 Harvard Law Review (forthcoming December 2012).