How corporations took over the federal courts

American democracy has been widely seen as embattled for the last 10 years or so, but the factions seeking to undermine or replace it have been active for many decades.

We’ve covered the political groups who have been at work in this regard here on Theory of Change, but it’s also the case that many business leaders have become increasingly radicalized to view democracy as a threat to business — even though the social democratic nations of Europe have combined vigorous capitalism with strong democracy for decades without either one destroying the other.

Corporate interests have always sought influence within governments, but since the 1970s or so, right-wing business leaders have banded together to leverage the federal judiciary to evade public accountability and democratic governance, largely by making conduct that was once criminal perfectly legal.

Joining the show to talk about how this happened and how it works is Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, she’s a professor of law at Stetson University and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. She’s also the author of Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians, which is the basis of our discussion today.

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The video of this conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere.

Audio Chapters

00:00 — Introduction

05:34 — Red-baiting as a PR strategy against holding businesses accountable

13:55 — Buckley versus Valeo and the beginning of corporate influence in federal campaigns

24:53 — Nixon and the right’s obsession with controlliong federal courts

28:57 — Bribery and the post-Buckley campaign finance regime