After an Internet campaign to draft him, Lawrence Lessig officially announced yesterday the creation of an exploratory committee to run as a Democrat for the congressional seat vacated by Tom Lantos's recent death. This is an extremely interesting development for any number of reasons. Lessig is a Stanford law professor and something of a rock-star academic for his pioneering work on legal issues surrounding copyright, trademark and the internet. Lessig has long argued (and rightly, I think) that how the U.S. law treats these issues is stifling innovation and it's a major problem that stems from the undue influence of both big government and big business. Reihan Salam makes a pretty good case for why Conservatives should be interested in Lessig's decision to get engaged in politics: [Lessig] has a highly unusual pedigree. As a kid, he was a teenage Reaganite and hardcore libertarian. Though he later drifted to the left, Lessig's leftism (leftishm?) reflects a Millian sensibility that informs his thinking about the uses and abuses of government and corporate power. More encouraging still, he clerked for Richard Posner and Antonin Scalia. His worldview derives from a serious and lasting engagement with conservative ideas. Obviously, Lessig is a brilliant scholar who's unusually engaged and forward-thinking on a number of vital issues that are currently getting short shrift in Washington. That doesn't necessarily translate into skill as an effective politician, but his decison to run is a very interesting development that bears watching.