From Pamphlets to PACs: Campaign Finance and the Founding-Era Tradition of Political Speech
The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series
In this Federalist Society America 250 series, experts analyze modern legal and policy debates through the lens of the Founding generation. The Founders gave us the tools to answer many contemporary questions; join us as we explore those answers.
Political debate in the Founding era was carried on through pamphlets, newspapers, and other forms of political advocacy, often published anonymously and financed by private individuals and political networks. That tradition itself grew out of the English experience. Pamphlet wars had helped shape English politics since the seventeenth century and played a significant role in the American Revolution. Controversies over seditious libel and freedom of the press, including the celebrated trial of John Peter Zenger, also helped frame debates over the extent to which government could punish criticism of public officials.
What does that history tell us about the First Amendment and modern campaign-finance law? How did the Founders understand anonymous political speech, privately financed advocacy, political association, and efforts to influence elections? And what, if anything, can the pamphleteering tradition teach us about contemporary efforts to regulate political spending and electoral speech?
Join us as our panel traces this historical throughline and considers its implications for campaign finance and political expression today.
Featuring:
- Prof. Philip Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; CEO, New Civil Liberties Alliance
- Stephen Klein, Partner, Barr & Klein PLLC
- Katie Reynolds, General Counsel, Targeted Victory
- (Moderator) Hon. Patrick Bumatay, Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
*******
As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.
