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.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the growing trend of “direct to consumer” lab testing, where people are able to order their own lab tests via the Internet without the need for costly doctor visits. Through a variety of labs available online, consumers can order tests ranging from checking cholesterol levels and blood sugar to a wide variety of more comprehensive testing.
Last week, the U.S. Forest Service got the drop on Tombstone when the City’s request for an emergency injunction was denied by Senior Judge Frank Zapata of the United States District Court. But Tombstone’s legal posse has a more than a few rounds left in the chamber.
Two years ago, Gov. Jan Brewer abolished the Arizona Department of Commerce. It wasn’t an act of getting rid of government waste or excess, but rather making way for a new entity: the “quasi-public” Arizona Commerce Authority.
More than the lives and properties of Tombstone, Ariz. residents and tourists are at stake in the historic town’s ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Forest Service to restore its water infrastructure. Arizona’s wildfire season is now underway with numerous dangerous wildfires being reported across the state. Tombstone is under contract with the Arizona State Forester to deliver water for suppressing wildfires; but that contract cannot be reliably fulfilled so long as the Forest Service blocks emergency repairs to Tombstone’s Huachuca Mountain water supply.
On the Liberty Law Talk podcast, host Richard Reinsch talks with Clint Bolick, Vice President of Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, about his book Death Grip: Loosening the Law’s Stranglehold over Economic Liberty. Bolick, of course, is no stranger to litigating constitutional claims for economic liberties and property rights, among other achievements.
Among the New Deal relics that persist today are federal dairy laws that restrict competition over milk prices. The Hettinga family, which owns two Arizona dairies, managed to lower prices through an exemption in the law, which ultimately led to the repeal of the exemption, and forced the Hettingas into the government-created dairy cartel.
In Two-Fer: Electing a President and a Supreme Court, Constitutional Law Expert Clint Bolick Reminds Voters to Consider Appointment of Supreme Court and Federal Judges in 2012 Presidential Election
President Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet: if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down his precious health care law, he’ll make the courts an issue in the presidential campaign.
But it should be an issue regardless, because this year’s election is a two-fer: as goes the presidency, so goes the federal judiciary — including, most likely, control of the Supreme Court.
Case Background
Does the government have the right to deny business permits because neighbors complain? The Arizona Supreme Court said no in its ruling on the Goldwater Institute’s case, Coleman v. Mesa.
Part one of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged ends in despair, as the oil fields of entrepreneur Ellis Wyatt burst into flames. Wyatt Oil, once a successful business that created jobs and launched an economic Renaissance in the western United States, had fallen victim to stifling taxes and government regulation. No longer willing to surrender to bureaucrats, Wyatt abandons his once-thriving business.