As Crucial Vote Nears on Amendment to Fix Campaign Funding, Law Professor Tim Kuhner and Public Citizen’s Jonah Minkoff Zern Urge Action

Subscribe: RSS

Free Preview Clip

[audio https://www.peterbcollins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Kuhner.mp3]

On September 8, the Senate is scheduled to vote on a resolution for a constitutional amendment on campaign finance. We talk with author and law professor Tim Kuhner, and Jonah Minkoff Zern of Public Citizen….

Click here for free audiobook download from Audible, and earn $15 for the PBC Podcast!

Timothy K. Kuhner is associate professor at Georgia State University College of Law, and author of an important new book, Capitalism vs. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution. Jonah Minkoff Zern is co-director of the Democracy is for People project at Public Citizen.

We open with Prof. Kuhner’s sharp criticism of the Roberts court, and the rulings of the past 30 years that equate money with speech, confer personhood on corporations, and upend the vital efforts to clean up our corrupt campaign funding system. Kuhner articulates the pitfalls of “free market democracy” and his book details the way the Roberts court reframed the Citizens United case from its narrow issues to a sweeping change that favors the speech of rich people and corporations. Zern focuses on the movement to amend the Constitution, which both guests see as the only certain way to fix the problems. Zern talks about the challenges, and names Senators who need a nudge from constituents on this matter.