100 Quotes by Zephyr Teachout

Everybody's always going to have some self-interest. When it passes a certain point, that's when it become corruption.

And my whole life I've been focused on questions of anti-corruption laws, on constitutional law, and it's essential that the power of this office be maximized to stop corruption at the national level.

In the absence of relative equality - quid pro quo - a court might question whether there was an actual contract. If I give you a dollar, and you give me a mansion, our contract would lack quid pro quo.

In some states, the attorney general is appointed, but in New York state it's an independently elected position. The New York attorney general has an obligation to the people first, to her conscience and to the rule of law, not to the governor, and not to the legislature.

We fought a revolution to free ourselves from arbitrary power and the whims of a monarch.

Corruption is when people in public office use that public office for private or selfish ends. This is one of the most central debates in the last 40 years in law, what is corruption.

New York has really thrived both upstate and downstate when there are tens of thousands of small businesses all representing their different creative impulses.

Corruption requires looking into someone's soul and making judgments about their intent.

If the publicly passed campaign finance laws had not been struck down by the Supreme Court, Club for Growth Action would be illegal, and Heritage Action wouldn't have the SuperPAC threat to back up its small ad purchases.