Constitutional Rights
Government can be freedom’s best friend when it protects citizens’ constitutional rights. Here’s how the Goldwater Institute is ensuring your rights are protected.
William F. Buckley Jr. was in town Thursday to discuss the future of conservatism in a mock Firing Line with his son, the humorist and satirist Christopher, for the Goldwater Institute. (Christopher wryly noted what an honor it was to finally be a guest on the show, five years after it had gone off the air.)
Conservatives are feeling pretty cocky these days, believing that the political zeitgeist is at their back. But Bill Buckley's visit underscores the challenge four more years of the Bush administration presents to conservatism's fundamental beliefs.
In 2002, New Jersey's Carol Thomas made headlines after her teenage son used her 1990 Ford Thunderbird to sell marijuana to an undercover police officer. He was arrested, pled guilty and faced his punishment. However, that did not end the case. The government also seized Thomas' car, despite the fact that no drugs were found in the car, she was the sole owner, and she had no knowledge of her son's use of the car to sell illegal drugs. The government's action was pursuant to a legal doctrine-civil asset forfeiture-that allows police and prosecutors to seize and forfeit property without ever filing criminal charges against the property owner.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 1965, the University of Florida football team faced a potentially devastating enemy-dehydration. University doctors set out to make a drink that would keep the team hydrated and winning. The product they made is now known the world over as Gatorade. Not only did Gatorade energize dehydrated football players, but once licensed to a soft drink company, it reaped handsome profits for the University of Florida and sparked an ongoing race for universities to discover more profitable products.
There was no black-tie soiree trumpeting the arrival of the Barry Goldwater Institute when it opened its doors to relative anonymity in 1988.
It began humbly in a one-room, rented apartment off Beaver Street near the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff. Founder Michael Sanera needed two tries to persuade the former senator to lend his name to a conservative think tank, originally called the Arizona Policy Institute.
Checking the Powers of Government
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -- James Madison
Every few weeks during an election year, an Arizona pundit or civic spokesman announces that the state is in dire need of "leadership," and needs people who will make the "tough decisions" necessary for the future of the state.
Such proclamations ignore the other key factor in the leadership equation: having the right principles. For political change to secure lasting benefits to the public, leadership must be informed by right principles. Strong leadership informed by wrong principles brings disaster.
PHOENIX (AP) - Proposition 303 on the Nov. 5 ballot would raise an estimated $62 million a year to help pay for health care for poor Arizonans, subsidies for hospital emergency rooms and research into leading fatal diseases.
Smokers would pick up the tab - if Arizona voters approve the referendum's 60 cent increase in the state's current 58 cent excise tax on each pack of cigarettes, for a total of $1.18. Taxes on other tobacco products would go up as well.
For a pack-a-day smoker such as Barbara Wells, the increase would cost $219 a year.
Study Targets Master Settlement Agreement, Prop. 303 Tax Hike, Tempe Smoking Ban
Phoenix, AZ-In a study released today by the Goldwater Institute, Cato Institute constitutional scholar Robert A. Levy concludes that Arizona's tobacco policies are "paternalism at its worst, without regard for personal liberty or private property," and urges Arizonans not to "sacrifice cherished rights in order to wage war on cigarettes."
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In his 1776 book "The Wealth of Nations," Adam Smith remarked that when businessmen get together, their talk usually turns to means of stifling competition. With even more justice, Smith might have written, "lawyers." The legal profession makes all others look like amateurs when it comes to rigging the market.