Equal Citizens August 2018 Update
By Lawrence Lessig
I apologize I’m a day late! But it’s summer — which in my world means I’m frantically preparing to begin teaching again in a couple weeks. Here’s a short, intended-to-be-sweet, update.
Against Winner-take-all: David Boies argued the second of our four cases in Massachusetts at the beginning of the month. Fate had it that I was in San Francisco (having my car broken into and all our luggage stolen, but that’s another story…) so I didn’t get to see the argument. But the reports were promising and a gaggle of Equal Citizens got to watch the argument being made. We’ve got two more district court arguments to be had — South Carolina and Texas — and then we’re hoping for a quick chance to get to a Court of Appeals.
On the rights of electors: All the briefs are in! As you’ll remember, we’re on appeal in the 10th Circuit, and have an emergency appeal to the Washington Supreme Court. I’m a great admirer of both Courts (I had a happy victory in a copyright case in the 10th circuit, back in the day), and am really eager to get a chance to present our argument. The Washington Supreme Court is, unfortunately, not the fastest. That would be the best case to get to the Supreme Court. We’ve now filed a letter with the Washington Supreme Court asking it to expedite its review. Regardless of your view of the merits, we should all agree that we need the Supreme Court to resolve the question whether electors are free to vote their conscience — before that creates a constitutional crisis. You can read our filings here.
Against Super PACs: We’re busy (actually, our chief counsel, Jason, is really busy) pulling together our expert reports, which will provide the foundation to our argument in Alaska why an “originalist” — what Justice Gorsuch and nominee Judge Kavanaugh are — should not read the First Amendment to protect SuperPACs. Our argument presenting the issue is October 4 — in Alaska! Come help us celebrate?
And finally, for reading this far: I realized this morning as I was watching this video — sent to me by a kid who has just completed a gap year before college — that I have become so depressed about the Internet that it’s gems genuinely surprise me. This video is a real gem. I realize it scans to the left, but it is astonishing to recognize that we have a platform available to anyone that gives anyone this capacity to write. Whether you like Chomsky or not, love the fact that this is how anyone can now speak.
Thank you again for all your support. We are making progress.