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.
Rarely are proposed statutes models of clear and precise writing. But H.B.2331, sponsored by Reps. Tom Boone and Sam Crump, is exactly that. It provides that Arizona cities and counties "shall not enact an ordinance or resolution that in any way limits or prohibits the lawful enforcement of the United States immigration laws."
One of the hallmarks of the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is its avoidance of divisive constitutional rulings at all costs. The latest example of this approach is the Court's decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder, which sidestepped a constitutional challenge to the "preclearance" provision of the Voting Rights Act.
In the aftermath of the 1964 presidential election, the American media was quick to interpret Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory as not just a defeat for Barry Goldwater, but as the end of a movement.
"Barry Goldwater not only lost the presidential election yesterday," New York Times Washington Bureau Chief James Reston declared, "but the conservative cause as well."
The Arizona Senate is considering a bill that would regulate homeowner associations by imposing government mandates on HOA contracts.
This bill runs afoul of freedom of contract, the principle that the government should not interfere with agreements reached by willing parties. This principle recognizes that the state should not superintend the wisdom of contractual relationships.
Though President Barack Obama's pick to replace Justice David Souter will not immediately affect the U.S. Supreme Court's ideological balance, it could impact the Court's direction for a long time. The crucial question is how far left Obama will look.
An initiative that would have banned racial and ethnic preferences in Arizona governments will not appear on the ballot this year, but evidence of the need for such action continues to grow with the release today of two studies that document massive racial preferences at the state's two public law schools.
Amidst the jubilation among freedom lovers following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to keep and bear arms, many overlooked a possible huge exception: whether the amendment restricts only national laws (including ordinances passed by the District of Columbia), and not state laws. If so, the celebration was premature.
Arizona's housing market is in a down cycle and Proposition 201, the Homeowners' Bill of Rights, would likely worsen the situation.
In a year in which numerous state ballot initiatives have been criticized as deceptive, at least one measure--Proposition 101, the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act--is exactly what it purports to be: a constitutional insurance policy against socialized medicine.
When initiative petitions were circulated last week to repeal the use of speed-enforcement cameras on the state's highways, among the first to sign was Paul Babeu, the newly elected Pinal County Sheriff.
Babeu thinks the cameras dumb-down law-enforcement. "I've never yet seen a photo-radar camera arrest a drunk driver or arrest a person with a warrant, see if somebody has insurance or just simply give directions to somebody," he explains.