Money, Politics and the U.S. Constitution

Who gets to decide whether and how to regulate money in our campaigns and elections? For the past 50 years, the Supreme Court has made itself the nation's apex regulator of money-in-politics. Through its campaign finance decisions, the Court has taken many options off the table from state and federal policymakers.

But is this the way things should be, as a matter of constitutional structure? There is a growing movement — which includes state lawmakers from both major political parties — that is calling for a constitutional amendment that would empower Congress and the States to choose whether and how to regulate money-in-politics. In this panel, we'll explore the text and theory of the proposed amendment through an interactive discussion with both its advocates and skeptics.

Proposed Participants:

• Brian Boyle, Executive Director & General Counsel at American Promise.
• Scott Day Freeman, Goldwater Institute.

Moderator:

• Kory Langhofer, Managing Attorney at Statecraft PLLC.

Biographies:

Brian Boyle is executive director and general counsel at American Promise, a nationwide non-profit organization that is leading a movement for constitutional reform to reduce the influence of money in politics. Before joining the leadership team at American Promise, Brianwas a small business owner, a litigator in a national law firm and a clerk on the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He has also been involved in local government, serving as a member of his town's Select Board and on former Governor Charlie Baker's Local Government Advisory Commission. Brian earned his BA from Harvard College and his JD from Cornell Law School. 

Scott Day Freeman is a senior attorney at the Goldwater Institute.  He has nearly 30 years of experience litigating complex commercial and products liability defense matters.  He is a former President of the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel and Pacific Regional Director of DRI, two leading state and national organizations of civil defense attorneys.  He also served as the Vice Chair of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission during the 2011 redistricting cycle.  Scott is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Kory Langhofer  is the managing attorney at Statecraft PLLC, a law firm focusing on government and political law. His practice is concentrated in campaign finance, constitutional litigation, and political matters. He has previously worked as a federal prosecutor, as litigation counsel to multiple presidential campaigns, and as general counsel for the 2016-2017 presidential transition team. Kory received his A.B. in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an Editor of The Yale Law Journal.