I'm Bill Moyers. It's good to have your ear.

This week on Mooriers & Company, I'm talking with Lawrence Lessig and Zephyr Teachout.

John Roberts gets it so deeply wrong in his understanding of history, and he gets it so deeply wrong in a way that has really hurt us because he keeps striking down campaign finance laws.

So it's bad history, it's bad law, it's bad policy.

I actually think this debate in the Supreme Court is not over.

This is not a democratic issue. This is not a Republican issue.

This is an American issue.

This corruption is an American issue. This corruption is an

American issue. And we can find a way to not separate us from, you know, people that we

recognize, but instead to unite us against a fight that nobody on the merits can defend.

Thanks for joining us. Welcome.

Like many of you, I've been watching Congress since the midterm elections, and what I've seen has me thinking of King Louis the 16th of France.

His Majesty was a good friend of the American Revolution.

But when he gave Benjamin Franklin a gold snuff box with the monarch's portrait surrounded with diamonds,

some of our founding fathers objected. They worried that the gift would corrupt his judgment

and unduly biased Franklin in France's favor. Ever since, we Americans have been debating the

meaning of corruption. Today, gifts to politicians that were once called graft or bribes are called contributions.

And the Supreme Court has ruled that powerful corporations and rich individuals can give just

about anything they want to politicians who do their bidding.

And it's not considered corruption.

The Watchdog Sunlight Foundation reports that from 2007 to 2012,

200 corporations spent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions

...