Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout’s new monthly column with The Nation, “Anti-Monopolist,” will focus on “corruption and monopoly power, corporate behemoths and the mercenary politicians beholden to them.”
“Zephyr Teachout has been on our editorial board for a while now, but given our steep descent towards oligarchy, her focus on corruption and corporate power is too valuable not to share with our readers regularly,” said Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan. “The day I spent in 2016 riding around the Hudson Valley with Zephyr and her campaign manager remains one of the high points in my political education.”
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“I am so proud to be joining The Nation as columnist, where some of the most extraordinary writers in American history have championed free speech, spoken plainly about corruption, and challenged oligarchy,” said Teachout. “The Nation represents a commitment to the power of words, debate, ideas, and freethinking in a time when all are needed. I’ll do my best to do it proud.”
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A distinguished academic and anti-corruption powerhouse, Zephyr Teachout has been at the forefront of advancing progressive reform for more than two decades and has contributed to The Nation for nearly as long. She was named to the editorial board in 2018. Teachout’s Nation articles have ranged from TikTok to 21st-century trust busting, tackling abuses of power and advocating for equitable economic policies along the way. A professor of law at Fordham Law School, where she focuses on the intersection of corporate and political power, she is a regular contributor to amicus briefs on key issues involving the First Amendment and big tech, a leader in the national antimonopoly movement, and an internationally recognized anti-corruption expert. She ran for office in New York in 2014 (for the Democratic Party nomination for governor), 2016 (for the US House of Representatives), and 2018 (as the New York Times–endorsed candidate for New York State attorney general). Teachout quite literally wrote the book on corruption in America—Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United—and, more recently, Break ’Em Up Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. She lives with her family in East Harlem, NY.
Read “The Nation Names New Columnists Zephyr Teachout, John Ganz, and David Klion” in The Nation.
Teachout’s first installment, out this morning, addresses Elon Musk’s machinations and President Donald Trump’s actions—and how to fight back effectively.
Everybody has a job at this moment, and it is the job of Democrats in Congress to use their substantial resources and the power they already have to make sure that every illegal executive order and action is accompanied by a flood of lawsuits—procedural sticks jamming up the works of the Trump agenda. Members of Congress have a unique capacity to take the microphones that reporters thrust in their faces to focus public attention on the most direct and awful impacts of what Trump is doing, and on his targets with the broadest public support.
Read “Pay Less Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain” in The Nation.