Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United

Zephyr Teachout

Dec 2014 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jo Anna Perrin

About this audiobook

For two centuries, the Framers' ideas about political corruption flourished in the courts, even in the absence of clear rules governing voters, civil officers, and elected officials. In the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrow the definition of corruption, and the meaning has since changed dramatically. No case makes that clearer than Citizens United. In 2010, one of the most consequential Court decisions in American political history gave wealthy corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion treated corruption as nothing more than explicit bribery. With unlimited spending transforming American politics for the worse, Citizens United was not just bad law but bad history. Corruption in America clearly shows that if the American experiment in self-government is to have a future, then we must revive the traditional meaning of corruption and embrace an old ideal.

About the author

Zephyr Teachout is a scholar of constitutional law and an associate professor of law at Fordham Law School. She was the first national director of the Sunlight Foundation, and she also served as director of Internet organizing for Howard Dean's presidential campaign. Zephyr cofounded A New Way Forward, an organization built to break up the power of big banks.

Jo Anna Perrin is an accomplished actor who has appeared in film and television, as well as on stage in New York, Los Angeles, and regionally. The narrator of numerous audiobooks, Jo Anna has garnered critical praise from AudioFile magazine, Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.