Loyola Law School to Host Symposium On Corporate Rights and Political Spending

Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and Free Speech for People will host the symposium “Corporations, the Constitution, and Democracy” featuring a slate of prominent corporate, constitutional and election-law scholars and a keynote address by the Hon. Leo E. Strine, Jr., chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. The event will be held on Friday, Nov. 20 from 12-4:30 p.m. on Loyola’s downtown LA campus.

The panel “The Future of Corporate Constitutional Rights Litigation and Theory,” will feature Margaret M. Blair, Vanderbilt Law School; Erwin Cherminsky, UC Irvine School of Law; Sarah Haan, University of Idaho College of Law; James D. Nelson, University of Houston Law Center; Anne Tucker, Georgia State University College of Law; and Adam Winkler, UCLA School of Law. The panel “Democracy, Corporations and Money in Politics” will include Jeff Clements, Free Speech for People; Richard L. Hasen, UC Irvine School of Law; Michael S. Kang, Emory University School of Law; Jessica Levinson, Loyola Law School; and Michele Sutter, Money Out Voters In.

Chief Justice Strine, a preeminent corporate law jurist, will deliver the keynote address, “Corporate Power Ratchet: The Courts’ Role in Eroding ‘We the People’s’ Ability to Constrain Our Corporate Creations.” Closing remarks will come from John Bonifaz, Free Speech for People, and Elizabeth Pollman, Loyola Law School. The afternoon will conclude with a reception.

“The event brings together top scholars and legal activists to discuss two of the biggest controversies of our time: corporate personhood and money in politics,” said Pollman, conference organizer. “Speakers will address these topics from practical and theoretical perspectives and offer ways to rethink both campaign finance and the constitutional rights of corporations.”