This Jan 21 lunch workshop (by invitation) may interest academics, law students, and policy folks, and it will feature Yasmin Dawood, Janai Nelson, Nick Stephanopoulos and me:

Plutocrats United
A Brennan Center Workshop

Thursday, January 21, 2016
12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Brennan Center for Justice
161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10013

Last October, the New York Times reported that just 158 families contributed nearly half of all early money in the 2016 presidential race. A Princeton political scientist recently concludedthat the preferences of most Americans rarely are reflected in government policy.

Against this challenging terrain, we believe the time has come for a fundamental rethinking of how we approach campaign finance regulation. On January 21, 2016, the Brennan Center will host an invitation-only workshop to discuss Professor Rick Hasen’s most recent contribution to the debate – his forthcoming new book Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections. He will be joined by several other leading academics in the field.

In Plutocrats, Hasen explores how our campaign finance system reduces political equality and diminishes democracy. He argues that advocates on all sides have misunderstood the greatest challenge posed by Citizens United – the need to balance political inequality with free speech. With the goal of promoting creative and practical thinking, we are inviting a diverse group of advocates, activists and academics to discuss these critically important and timely issues.

To request an invitation, contact

Ava Mehta at [email protected] or (646) 292-8371.