Lawrence Lessig presidential campaign, 2016
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 Lawrence Lessig |
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- See also: Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig was a Democratic candidate for the office of President of the United States in 2016. On November 2, 2015, Lessig suspended his presidential campaign. In a video he posted to YouTube, Lessig said, "It is now clear that the [Democratic Party] won’t let me be a candidate, and I can’t ask people to support a campaign that I know can’t even get before the members of the Democratic Party, or to ask my team or my family to make a sacrifice even greater than what they’ve already made."[2]
Lessig is a professor of law at Harvard Law School and the co-founder of Creative Commons, a nonprofit that facilitates copyright license usage for creators to distribute and share their work.[3][4]
On August 11, 2015, Lessig announced he had formed a presidential exploratory committee to run as a referendum candidate in the Democratic primary.[5] Initially, Lessig's sole mandate as president had been to ensure Congress pass the Citizens Equality Act of 2017. Once achieved, Lessig had pledged to resign and the vice president would become president.[6] He subsequently had a change of heart on resigning. “That was totally stupid,” Lessig said on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. “I withdraw that promise. I am not going to resign. I am running for president with the commitment to pass legislation that gets our democracy back.”[7]
| “ | The Citizens Equality Act of 2017 is a package of reforms designed to restore citizen equality.
It guarantees the freedom to vote, ends partisan gerrymandering, and funds campaigns in a way that would give us a Congress free to lead. Each part is drawn from existing proposals for fundamental reform. We are not reinventing the wheel. And taken together, they would give us — finally — what we were promised: a government of, by, and for the people.[8] |
” |
| —Lessig for President[6] | ||
After raising $1 million in less than four weeks in a crowd-sourced fundraiser, Lessig announced his presidential run on September 6, 2015.[9]
On the issues
Economic and fiscal
Taxes
- In a July 16, 2015, op-ed for The Daily Beast, Lawrence Lessig argued the American tax system was complicated because "it helps Congress finance its campaigns." Lessig wrote, "Think about the R&D tax credit, which has been a 'temporary' provision in the tax code since 1981. Each time the credit is about to expire, Congress rallies support to renew the tax break from those who benefit from it. 'Support' means campaign contributions. As the libertarian Institute for Policy Innovation puts it, “this cycle has repeated itself for years ... Congress essentially uses this cycle to raise money for re-election, promising the industry more predictability the next time around.”[10]
Government regulations
- In his 2011 book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It, Lawrence Lessig wrote that "there are only two things we can be certain of when talking of free markets: first, that new innovation will challenge old; and second, that old innovation will try to protect itself against the new. Again and again, across history and nations, the successful defend their success in whatever way they can. Principles – such as 'I got here because of a free market; I shouldn't interfere with others challenging me by interfering with a free market' – are good so long as they don't actually constrain. Once they constrain, the principles disappear."[11]
Budgets
- In a January 1995 Los Angeles Times op-ed, Lawrence Lessig argued that a federal balanced budget amendment could be an enforceable law if the president were given line-item veto authority. Lessig said, "The constitutional flaw in the balanced-budget amendment is that it is simply unenforceable. By its terms, it requires that expenditures not exceed receipts. It does not say what happens if expenditures do exceed receipts. It does not, for example, specify whether a court can review the matter. ... Tying the balanced-budget amendment to the line-item veto would create a constitutional power to balance the budget, vested in an officer who could effectively exercise that power, tempered by a political judgment (the President's) that allows for exceptions where exceptions are needed."[12]
Labor and employment
- In his 2011 book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It, Lawrence Lessig used teachers unions as an example of how special interest groups may negatively impact reform of an industry. Lessig noted teachers' unions were one of the largest contributors to the Democratic Party and the political environment favors tenure. Lessig suggested voters should ask themselves, "Does the influence of the unions' spending weaken your ability to believe that the current pro-tenure policy make sense?" He suggested this question be asked rather than, "Did the teachers' unions buy protection from more intensive performance evaluations?"[13]
Foreign affairs
National security
- In June 2014, Lawrence Lessig said of government surveillance programs, "We should recognize in a world of terrorism the government’s going to be out there trying to protect us. But let’s make sure that they’re using tools or technology that also protects the privacy side of what they should be protecting.”[14]
International relations
- In August 2015, Lawrence Lessig said he supported the work the Obama administration had done to open relations with Cuba.[15]
Epidemic control
- Lawrence Lessig said of Ebola in October 2014, "I hadn’t recognized how critical it is to rally awareness that the single most important policy is to treat the disease effectively in Africa. Not just because it is the humanitarian thing to do, but also because it is the most effective way to prevent its spread. Borders are porous; no one can really stop people from fleeing."[16]
- In 2008, Lessig said he supported vaccines and did not believe mercury caused autism. He suggested some parents have come to distrust public health information from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they allow doctors who review their decisions to waive conflict of interest rules.[17]
Domestic
Federalism
Judiciary
- In 2010, Lawrence Lessig supported Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. "I think that from the experience I’ve had with Elena, which is now more than twenty years, I think that she has exactly the right values and exactly the right skill that this justice will need. This is the fourth justice in the non-conservative or non-right-wing bloc of this right-wing court. And what that means is she needs to have the ability to persuade the fifth, so that we can get five votes for values and positions that we believe in. And I think what she’s demonstrated more than anything else is she has exactly that skill," he said.[18]
- Lessig clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge Richard Posner of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit between 1989 and 1991.[19]
First Amendment
- in response to Citizens United, Lawrence Lessig wrote an op-ed in New Republic in 2010 suggesting the decision could be combatted by remembering that corporations were not American citizens, regardless of whether they were considered "persons." Lessig encouraged the establishment of a new constitution amendment: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to restrict the power to limit, though not to ban, campaign expenditures of non-citizens of the United States during the last 60 days before an election."[20]
Fourth Amendment
- In June 2015, Lawrence Lessig said there was a false dichotomy between protecting privacy and guarding the nation in an interview with WGBH News. He explained, "[M]ost Americans have a false choice in their mind. Either we protect privacy, or we are facing terrorists. ... It isn't an either or a choice. There are ways that we can be building the infrastructure of surveillance that actually would be protecting privacy in a very fundamental way but give the government a better opportunity to identify risks that they need to go after. And we need to be pushing the government to do that, rather than this very simple binary choice of well, we're either going to have terrorists or we're going to have protection of privacy."[21]
Crime and justice
- In 2008, Lawrence Lessig said regardless of a person's theoretical position on the death penalty, he "cannot support the death penalty once [he sees] how the system actually works." He referenced his experience handling capital punishment litigation as a Supreme Court clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia as the premise for this belief.[22]
Black Lives Matter movement
- Prior to declaring his candidacy for president, Lawrence Lessig held a press conference on August 31, 2015, with community advocates and racial justice activists in Ferguson, Missouri.[23] Lessig's campaign described the city as "ground zero" of the Black Lives Matter movement in a press release.[24]
- Surrounded by local activists from the Lost Voices group, Lessig said, "It’s important to me that the very first campaign event we’ve held is in Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson is ground zero for an idea that we as a nation have to rally to achieve, and that is the idea of equality. It shouldn’t be controversial in America that citizens are equal. Yet we have a system where there are second class citizens everywhere – we have business class citizens and the rest of us.”[24]
- He added, "We are going to fight to make this election about getting our democracy back. ... Black lives matter and this idea will make it so all lives in America celebrate the diversity and strength that is our past and will be our future."[25]
Healthcare
- Lawrence Lessig said, unlike Hillary Clinton, he would keep Obamacare's Cadillac tax—a tax on high-cost employer healthcare plans. “Economists can say little with certainty but they are all pretty united on the view that super premium benefit packages burden middle class wages. So long as the tax remains targeted on the luxury plans, I would retain it,” Lessig told Politico on October 14, 2015. He also reiterated his overall support for Obamacare.
- In an interview with Reason in August 2015, Lessig said Obamacare was "an important piece of legislation," but suggested that it had been partially designed with pharmaceutical companies' interests in mind. Lessig said, "It has incredibly important compromises built in that are only there because of the money. For example, even though Obama ridiculed George Bush's prescription drug law for the rule that says the government can't negotiate lower prices with drug manufacturers, that provision is in Obamacare. And why is it in Obamacare? Because the pharmaceutical companies basically said they would spend millions of dollars to defeat Democrats if it weren't included."[27]
Education
- According to Forbes in September 2015, Lawrence Lessig said Congress had been unable to address student loan reform or properly evaluate the “testing industry...born in light of No Child Left Behind” because of contributions from the banking and testing industries. He also stated his support for “openly licensed educational materials” to reduce the cost of textbooks.[28]
Gay rights
| Lessig argues against Proposition 8 in October 2008. |
- Lawrence Lessig opposed Proposition 8, a California ballot measure seeking to make same-sex marriage illegal, in 2008. When it passed in November 2008, Lessig wrote on his blog: "This is a democracy. We win when we persuade people of our ideals. I believe strongly that Proposition 8 is against our ideals. I have so argued. But we have failed to convince the other members of this democracy. We need to try again. Let us launch, now, a new petition movement. Let us spend a year talking to people who disagree with us. Let us win this battle by persuading the other side. I volunteer to do whatever would help, including traveling to every church or community in this state to make the case for equality. But please, let’s not try to win this battle by summoning the Supremes. Even if it is right that this Amendment is contrary to the best interpretation of Equal Protection, let us bring the ideals of Equal Protection to life, by getting people to support them."[29][30]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term Lawrence + Lessig + 2016
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ YouTube, "The Democrats have changed the rules," November 2, 2015
- ↑ MSNBC, "Lawrence Lessig drops Democratic presidential bid," November 2, 2015
- ↑ Lessig, "About," accessed September 5, 2015
- ↑ Creative Commons, "About," accessed September 5, 2015
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Why I Want to Run," August 11, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lessig for President, "The Plan," accessed September 6, 2015
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Lawrence Lessig Withdraws 'Totally Stupid' Plan To Resign Presidency," October 17, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedLessigAnnounce - ↑ The Daily Beast, "Why No One Will Reform Washington," July 16, 2015
- ↑ Lessig, Lawrence. (2011). Republic, Lost. New York: Hachette Book Group. (page 209)
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "An End Run to a Balanced Budget," January 17, 1995
- ↑ Lessig, Lawrence. (2011). Republic, Lost. New York: Hachette Book Group. (pages 53-54)
- ↑ Bill Moyers, "Big Brother’s Prying Eyes," June 14, 2013
- ↑ Bloomberg, "Lawrence Lessig Wants to Be President for 'as Short a Time as Possible,'" August 2015
- ↑ Lessig Blog, "Ebola: treating it there," October 19, 2014
- ↑ techPresident, "Lessig Launches Change-Congress.org," March 20, 2008
- ↑ Democracy Now, "Glenn Greenwald v. Lawrence Lessig: A Debate on Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court Nomination," May 12, 2010
- ↑ Lessig.org, "CV," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ New Republic, "Citizens Unite," March 16, 2010
- ↑ WBGH News, "Lawrence Lessig On The Patriot Act And Campaign Finance Reform," June 2, 2015
- ↑ The Austin Chronicle, "The Death Penalty in Practice," August 1, 2008
- ↑ Lessig for President, "Democratic Presidential Candidate Larry Lessig Travels to Ferguson, Missouri Visiting “Ground Zero” of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, to Listen and Support," August 28, 2015
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lessig for President, "Lessig Meets with Activists in Ferguson to Discuss Racial Justice and Citizen Equality," September 2, 2015
- ↑ Vimeo, "#Listen2Ferguson with @LostVoices14 and @Lessig," accessed September 9, 2015
- ↑ ABC News, "'This Week' Transcript: Mike Huckabee and John Kasich," September 6, 2015
- ↑ Reason, "Lawrence Lessig Wants to Be President for a Day," August 11, 2015
- ↑ Forbes, "Lawrence Lessig On Education: 4 Things The Presidential Candidate Wants You To Know," September 30, 2015
- ↑ YouTube, "8 Minutes on Proposition 8," October 28, 2008
- ↑ Lessig, "On the passage of Proposition 8," November 5, 2008
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