A Sign of the Times

Last September, I wrote about Lawrence Lessig's research on the U.S. Constitution's authors' beliefs about corruption in government:

It's a textual analysis of the Constitution's authors, finding the Founders cared not just about quid pro quo corruption (the classic idea of the bribed politician) but also about the corrupting influence of group power and money. As Lessig says, he's attempting to supply the originalists like Scalia with a smoking gun of original intent, rather than taking the usual progressive argument that the Constitution is a living document.

The five conservative members of the Supreme Court announced today that they have no interest in Lessig's argument, and it's too depressing to write about.

You know those surveys where they ask people if the country is going in the right or wrong direction? The results are generally taken as an evaluation of the current president, but if a survey-taker asked me, my response would be more about the Supreme Court. As the Nation's Ari Berman put it today, "In the past four years, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has made it far easier to buy an election and far harder to vote in one."

So instead, I offer this photo of something I saw on the street today:



Anything helps.