On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. FEC. 558 U.S. 310. As sometimes happens when modest facts reach courts of last resort, Citizens United immediately eclipsed the controversy at hand. A case about a non-profit organization’s production of Hillary: The Movie, a little-seen documentary on then-Senator Hillary Clinton, became an early flashpoint in a decade of political conflict that coincided with, or that was perhaps fueled by, substantial increases in direct political spending by groups outside traditional campaign and party committees.
Late last year, Sarah Haan suggested marking on this show the ten-year anniversary of that momentous decision. That excellent suggestion led to this Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium. Of course, the seriatim-speakers-in-a-room structure of a traditional symposium required some adjusting for the podcast format. Instead, I pre-recorded seven interviews, to be released on this ten-year anniversary, with scholars who have spent part of the past decade working on Citizens United and its implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Each guest brings a different set of insights and observations, and I am excited to share the full program with the listeners.
Political scientists Anna Harvey and Michael Rocca join to discuss empirical research and findings stemming from Citizens United. Five legal scholars–Kent Greenfield, Sarah Haan, Elizabeth Pollman, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, and Anne Tucker–join to discuss the case’s corporate-law and constitutional consequences. I ask the legal scholars a common set of questions: (1) tell me about your work in this area over the last decade, (2) what’s surprised you or not surprised you in that time, and (3) what are you watching for or predicting over the next ten years? Although common themes, and sometimes areas of disagreement, emerge in the answers, each guest speaks from a unique vantage and is watching for different developments over the next decade.
These differences–especially for the final prospective question–and a modest two-hour runtime recommend a full listen to the symposium. The interviews are available below this foreword and on all major podcast services. As always, if you like what you hear, please consider subscribing to the podcast or sharing with others who might like it too. And if you have ideas for future episodes, let me know at andrew@andrewkjennings.com. Thank you for listening.
–Andrew Jennings, Creator/Host, Business Scholarship Podcast
Kent Greenfield
Kent Greenfield, professor of law at Boston College, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss his work on Citizens United and the decision’s implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Works discussed include Corporations Are People Too (And They Should Act Like It).
In addition to discussing his scholarship, Greenfield reflects on the tenth anniversary of Citizens United, including what’s surprised him, what hasn’t, and what he is watching over the next ten years.
Sarah Haan
Sarah Haan, associate professor of law at Washington & Lee University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss her work on Citizens United and the decision’s implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Works discussed include Voter Primacy and Shareholder Proposal Settlements and the Private Ordering of Public Elections.
In addition to discussing her scholarship, Haan reflects on the tenth anniversary of Citizens United, including what’s surprised her, what hasn’t, and what she is watching over the next ten years.
Anna Harvey
Anna Harvey, professor of politics at New York University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss her article Does Money Have a Conservative Bias? Estimating the Causal Impact of Citizens United on State Legislative Preferences. In this article, Harvey and her co-author find that after Citizens United not only did states whose campaign-finance laws were affected by the decision see flips in control of legislative seats, but also that elected Republican legislators held more conservative policy preferences.
Elizabeth Pollman
Elizabeth Pollman, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss her work on Citizens United and the decision’s implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Works discussed include Citizens Not United: The Lack of Stockholder Voluntariness in Corporate Political Speech, A Corporate Right to Privacy, The Derivative Nature of Corporate Constitutional Rights, and Constitutionalizing Corporate Law.
In addition to discussing her scholarship, Pollman reflects on the tenth anniversary of Citizens United, including what’s surprised her, what hasn’t, and what she is watching over the next ten years.
Michael Rocca
Michael Rocca, associate professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss his articles The Effects of Citizens United on Corporate Spending in the 2012 Presidential Election and The Impact of Citizens United on Large Corporations and Their Employees. In these articles, Rocca and his co-authors find that the Citizens United decision did not lead to observable increases in direct campaign spending by firms or their employees, although it did mark a substantial increase in expenditures by a small set of high-spending individuals.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, professor of law at Stetson University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss her work on Citizens United and the decision’s implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Works discussed include Corporate Citizen? An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands.
In addition to discussing her scholarship, Torres-Spelliscy reflects on the tenth anniversary of Citizens United, including what’s surprised her, what hasn’t, and what she is watching over the next ten years.
Anne Tucker
Anne Tucker, associate professor of law at Georgia State University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast Citizens United at 10 podcast symposium to discuss her work on Citizens United and the decision’s implications for corporate law, money in politics, and American democracy. Works discussed include Flawed Assumptions: A Corporate Law Analysis of Free Speech and Corporate Personhood in Citizens United, Rational Coercion: Citizens United and a Modern Day Prisoner’s Dilemma, The Citizen Shareholder: Modernizing the Agency Paradigm to Reflect How and Why a Majority of Americans Invest in the Market, and Locked In: The Competitive Disadvantage of Citizen Shareholders.
In addition to discussing her scholarship, Tucker reflects on the tenth anniversary of Citizens United, including what’s surprised her, what hasn’t, and what she is watching over the next ten years.