Lawrence Lessig to Call for Elizabeth Warren Presidential Bid, Deliver Major Run Warren Run Speech

[RiverLover]

Lawrence Lessig to Call for Elizabeth Warren Presidential Bid, Deliver Major Run Warren Run Speech
3/26/2015

In an upcoming speech in New York, Lessig will outline why we need Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the presidential race and why she is best positioned to tackle money in politics.

NEW YORK — In a major speech scheduled for April 20, 2015 in New York City, Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, one of the nation’s most prominent advocates for curbing the influence of big money in politics, will call for a presidential bid by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

News of Lessig’s call for Warren to enter the race and his upcoming speech comes just days after the Boston Globe called on Warren to run in an unprecedented four-piece editorial and opinion spread.

In Lessig’s address—sponsored by MoveOn.org Political Action as part of the Run Warren Run campaign—he will assert that Sen. Warren’s voice would be a crucial addition to the Democratic primary in 2016 and make the case that she is uniquely qualified to address the growing and corrupting influence of big money in politics. The speech will follow a typical format for Lessig, who is known for talks that the New Yorker notes feature “fast-paced choreography of language and images.” Lessig joins a growing list of progressive leaders calling on Sen. Warren to run.

...“I don’t know whether Elizabeth Warren will run,” Lessig wrote in a blog post announcing the speech. “I will respect her decision either way. But I do know this, because I saw it in the campaign to get her to run for Senate: there’s always been one thing, and one thing only, that could convince her to take on a challenge. Not glory. Not power. Just one thing: the recognition that her jumping in is necessary to make a difference. The more of us who speak up, the more clear it will be that this is just such a moment. That there’s a difference that only she can make, at a moment in our history when we desperately need that difference.”

“Today’s announcement that Lawrence Lessig is the latest sign of the growing coalition of Americans calling on Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action. “No one can speak to the unique ability of Sen. Elizabeth Warren to tackle the corrupt influence of money in politics, were she to run, better than Lawrence Lessig.”

In 2014, Lessig co-founded Mayay PAC, a political action committee focused on elected candidates to Congress who support major reforms to campaign finance. He is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a law professor at Harvard Law School. Previously, he was a professor at Stanford Law School, where he founded the Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago.

Lessig spent his early career working on intellectual property law, during which time he helped launch Creative Commons and was an early and outspoken proponent of Net Neutrality. Recently, Lessig has dedicated his time to fighting the corrupt influence of money in politics, launching the organizations Change Congress, Rootstrikers, and Mayday PAC. He serves on the boards of Democracy Café, the Sunlight Foundation, and Americans Elect.

In December, more than 81 percent of voting MoveOn members opted to launch the Run Warren Run effort, citing her work to fix a rigged political and economic system that is failing America’s families. Democracy for America members voted to partner in leading the Run Warren Run effort shortly after MoveOn’s announcement.

More than 300,000 Americans have signed on in support of the Run Warren Run campaign and have hosted more than 400 events–including house parties, rallies, and honk-and-waves across the nation. The Run Warren Run campaign website and launch video at RunWarrenRun.org tell the story of the Massachusetts senator, who has become known as a passionate advocate for giving all Americans a fighting chance in an economy rigged in favor of big banks and corporate interests.

MoveOn and Democracy for America have pledged to invest at least $1.25 million into the effort.

http://front.moveon.org/lawrence-lessig-to-call-for-elizabeth-warren-presidential-bid-deliver-major-run-warren-run-speech/

(X-posted in GD)

[merrily]

1. I guess Lessig is ready for someone else, too. Apparently, this means he's in the "fringe left."

Ah, those wild-eyed bomb throwing, PAC creating Harvard law professors! What a radical lot they are!

In college, Lessig was a Republican. (Lot of former Republicans around, it seems.) Later, he was a libertarian. Now, he's a Democrat, and, according to his wiki, considered a (gasp) "liberal."


Just look at what his fringe leftist demands are!

He is a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive reform of government with a Second Constitutional Convention.[1] In May 2014, he launched a crowd-funded political action committee which he termed Mayday PAC with the purpose of electing candidates to Congress who would pass campaign finance reform.[2]

Lessig is director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Previously, he was a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center for Internet and Society. Lessig is a founding board member of Creative Commons and the founder of Rootstrikers, and is on the board of MapLight.[3] He is on the advisory boards of the Democracy Café,[4] Sunlight Foundation[5] and Americans Elect.[6] He is a former board member of the Free Software Foundation, Software Freedom Law Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[7]

And, if that doesn't turn you off, take a look at his record:

Academic career
File:IntervjuLessig.ogvPlay media
Interview with Lawrence Lessig in 2009

Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Lessig grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management (Wharton School) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge (Trinity) in England, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1989. After graduating from law school, he clerked for a year for Judge Richard Posner, at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois, and another year for Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court.[8]

Lessig started his academic career at the University of Chicago Law School, where he was Professor from 1991 to 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he was at Harvard Law School, holding for a year the chair of Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.[8] He subsequently joined Stanford Law School, where he established the school's Center for Internet and Society.[9]

Lessig returned to Harvard in December 2008 as Professor and Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.[10] In 2013, Lessig was appointed as the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership; his chair lecture was titled "Aaron's Laws: Law and Justice in a Digital Age."[11][12] In 2013, Lessig was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University, Sweden.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig

Why the hell didn't someone lock up this Trotskyite menace years ago?

(Just a gentle poke at "fringe left" with humorous intent. Don't nobody get too serious about it.)

[RiverLover]

2. Thanks for all the great info, merrily!

He is the director at the Safra Center for Ethics...and he wants Warren.

Makes all the sense in the world.

[merrily]

4. There's a lot more in his wiki, including that he clerked for Posner and Scalia.

I don't know if that was before or after his political conversion to the left, but clerking for a SCOTUS justice is hard for a lawyer to turn down, even for some Democrats.

I wonder if it takes contacts, as well as high grades, to get the slot. Probably..

[merrily]

3. On a more serious note, Lessig says those who want Warren to run need to speak up.

Sanders also said he will run only if he establishes he has support.

For anyone who wants a vigorous primary, MOVE. Show support. Call, write or email. Speak up. Put your money where your mouth is. Solicit donations. Ask what you can do.

Put up or say hello to Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Thanks for posting this, I'm a big fan of Lessig!

Also, I'm posting some reminders of why we need a primary.


http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/wall-street-republicans-hillary-clinton-2016-106070.html

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/why-wall-street-loves-hillary-112782.html#.VSH4e3Xd88o

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/wall-street-republicans-hillary-clinton-2016-106070_Page2.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/rihanna-jamie-dimon-and-h_b_4468222.html

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/hillary-clintons-goldman-sachs-problem

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/11/02/hillary_clinton039s_big_paydays_from_goldman_sachs_319105.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/why-liberal-democrats-are-skeptical-of-hillary-clinton-in-one-paragraph/282304/

[mother earth]

6. K & R nt