As the final installment of the Smith College 2016 Presidential Colloquium, Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons and professor of law at Harvard University, gave a presentation entitled “Equal Citizens” where he discussed the major problems in our electoral process. After running as a Democratic candidate for the 2016 Presidential race, Lessig saw firsthand the inner workings of the campaign system. Lessig claims we now live in a world where money equals free speech, and hopes to raise awareness of the ways in which recent Supreme Court rulings regarding campaign finance have corrupted the United State’s democratic process.
Lawrence Lessig is most well known for founding Creative Commons, a non-profit organization focused on building an archive of creative works in which people can build upon and share without concern for copyright infringement. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Yale University and spent his early career clerking for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. He’s been a professor at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and now the Harvard School of Law. He’s also the author of several titles, including Republic, Lost and The USA is Lesterland.
This lecture was recorded in Weinstein Auditorium at Smith College.
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