In Deep Radio - DEREK CRESSMAN


Credit: Gordon Whiting
 

 

 

 

Angie Coiro - In Deep Radio live at Kepler's

Wednesday, March 16, 2016, 12:00  p.m. 

RSVP HERE.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Show starts promptly at 12:00 p.m!

 

Featured Guest: 

Derek Cressman,  When Money Talks: The High Price of "Free" Speech and the Selling of Democracy

 

What can Americans do about the corrupting influence of special interest money destroying our democratic process?  Derek Cressman proposes both intellectual and tactical tools to fight back.

Cressman points out there’s nothing inherently unconstitutional in limiting the amount of speech. Cressman argues political advertising isn’t free speech, it’s paid speech - which isn't at all what the Founders had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment, and which shouldn't receive the same protections.

Cressman examines: 
  • how courts have foiled attempts to limit campaign spending;
  • what a constitutional amendment limiting paid speech should say, and
  • how concerned citizens can use an overlooked political tool to help gain its passage.

Seven times, Americans have passed constitutional amendments to overturn wrongheaded rulings by the Court. Cressman makes the case there’s no reason we can’t do it again. What would such an amendment say, and how would willing voters manage its passage?

Derek Cressman has worked professionally to strengthen campaign finance laws since 1995 as Director of the State PIRG's Democracy Program and Vice President for States with Common Cause. He ran for California Secretary of State in the June 2014 primary.

 

 

 

 

 

Event date: 
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 12:00pm
Event address: 
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025-4349