IRVINE, Calif. (Dec. 1, 2023) — The University of California, Irvine School of Law Professor Ann Southworth’s forthcoming book, “Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending” (University of Chicago Press 2023), is available for pre-order. Drawing from interviews, public records and archival materials, the book explores the roles that lawyers, advocacy organizations, and their patrons have played in the creation of U.S. Supreme Court doctrine invalidating campaign finance laws on First Amendment grounds.
Southworth appeared on an episode of the “UCI Law Talks” podcast with UCI Law Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law Austen Parrish in a wide-ranging discussion of the book, the Law School’s unique legal profession course, and the role of lawyers in a democratic society. Listen to the podcast episode or read the transcript.
Publisher’s Description for “Big Money Unleashed”
The story of how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation – a history that began much earlier than most imagine.
Americans across party lines believe that public policy is rigged in favor of those who wield big money in elections. Yet, legislators are restricted in addressing these concerns by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions finding that campaign finance regulations violate the First Amendment.
“Big Money Unleashed” argues that our current impasse is the result of a long-term process involving many players. Naturally, the justices played critical roles — but so did the attorneys who hatched the theories necessary to support the legal doctrine, the legal advocacy groups that advanced those arguments, the wealthy patrons who financed these efforts, and the networks through which they coordinated strategy and held the Court accountable.
Drawing from interviews, public records and archival materials, “Big Money Unleashed” chronicles how these players borrowed a litigation strategy pioneered by the NAACP to dismantle racial segregation and used it to advance a very different type of cause.
Southworth appeared in a book talk on Nov. 16 hosted by UCI Law’s Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession (CERLP), which Southworth co-directs, to discuss the book. Discussants included:
- Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Professor of Law and CERLP Co-Director, UCI Law (Moderator)
- John Bliss, Assistant Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
- Bryant Garth, Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and CERLP Co-Director, UCI Law
- Richard L. Hasen, Professor of Law and Political Science and Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project, UCLA Law
- Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law
Praise for “Big Money Unleashed”
Amanda Hollis-Brusky, co-author of “Separate but Faithful”
“Drawing on over fifty interviews with lawyers in the trenches, Big Money Unleashed details the decades-long battle to leverage the First Amendment in order to corrode the guardrails that protect our democracy from the influence of personal and corporate mega-money. Carefully researched and compellingly argued, Big Money Unleashed is a must-read for lawyers, academics, and everyday citizens concerned for our democracy.”
Ken I. Kersch, professor of political science at Boston College
“How did the Supreme Court become a major obstacle to the regulation of money in elections? Big Money Unleashed shows us how the sausage got made in this critical area of First Amendment doctrine. This incisive, deeply researched study by a premier scholar of conservative legal mobilization illuminates the long-game strategies and processes that are transforming American constitutional law and politics.”
Richard L. Hasen, author of “A Real Right to Vote”
“Ann Southworth’s Big Money Unleashed is a tour de force, a must-read account of how lawyers and their clients weaponized the First Amendment to allow big money to flow into American politics despite repeated congressional efforts to stanch its flow. Southworth takes us behind the scenes to see the strategies used by lawyers, and their calculated interactions with judges and clients, to make profound and deleterious legal and social change.”
About Ann Southworth
Professor Southworth teaches and writes on the legal profession and lawyers who serve causes, with an emphasis on lawyers’ norms, professional identities, practices, organizations and networks. Southworth participated in designing UCI Law’s required first-year course on the American legal profession, and is the co-author, with Catherine Fisk, of an interdisciplinary textbook, “The Legal Profession,” which is now in its second edition. She has published numerous articles on civil rights and poverty lawyers, lawyers involved in national policymaking, and advocates for conservative and libertarian causes, as well as a book on the conservative legal movement, “Lawyers of the Right: Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition” (University of Chicago Press 2008).
Prior to joining the founding faculty at UCI Law, she was a law professor at Case Western Reserve and an affiliated scholar at the American Bar Foundation. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard and UCLA. She clerked for Judge Stanley A. Weigel and practiced at Morrison & Foerster, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the U.S. Department of Justice. She received her B.A. and J.D. degrees from Stanford University.
About the University of California, Irvine School of Law
The University of California, Irvine School of Law is a visionary law school that provides an innovative and comprehensive curriculum, prioritizes public service, and demonstrates a commitment to equity within the legal profession. Nearly half of all UCI Law’s J.D. graduates are people of color, and almost a third are first-generation students. At UCI Law, we are driven to improve our local, national, and global communities by grappling with important issues as scholars, as practitioners, and as teachers who are preparing the next generation of leaders. The collaborative and interdisciplinary community at UCI Law includes extraordinary students, world-renowned faculty, dedicated staff, engaged alumni, and enthusiastic supporters. Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, X, and sign up for our monthly newsletter for the latest news and events at UCI Law.