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.
P.J. O'Rourke and fellow Irishman Pat McMahon talk current events, politics, and P.J.'s new book, On the Wealth of Nations.
Report Offers Blueprint for Constitutional Jurisprudence
Judicial interpretations of the Arizona Constitution have often been inconsistent and conflicting. Instead of developing a sound and authentically independent reading of the Arizona Constitution, the Arizona judiciary frequently relies on federal constitutional analyses to resolve matters of state constitutional interpretation. As a result, differences in the state constitution are often read out of the constitutional text to achieve uniformity with federal constitutional trends.
While there are many things wrong with the Second Circuit’s reasoning and result, this brief will focus primarily on the two interests relied upon by the court to uphold the candidate expenditure limits.
When this Court first created the contribution and express advocacy exceptions to protections for political speech, it recognized the questionable nature of the enterprise and strove to limit it, finding only in the most narrow of circumstances that a governmental interest in preventing corruption could trump protected speech. The government has since inverted the process, looking first for any proximity to an election as the preeminent question, and second to whether a speech interest exists. Speech jurisprudence is sliding down a slippery slope; prophylaxis is replacing narrow tailoring. It seems that it is now the regulation of speech, not its protection, that has its “fullest and most urgent application” where speech has any attenuated relation to an election.
Monday's Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana greatly expands federal power and restricts the ability of states to experiment with policies that differ with whatever party that controls Congress. While state medical cannabis laws remain in effect, law-abiding patients will think twice before violating federal law.
The judiciary is an important, but often overlooked branch of Arizona state government. In particular, the Arizona Supreme Court has a profound effect on citizens' exercise of basic constitutional liberties through decisions that typically elicit little public scrutiny.
PHOENIX-The Goldwater Institute is pleased to announce the addition of 17 senior fellows, including Vernon Smith, Nobel Prize Laureate and former University of Arizona professor.
"The Goldwater Institute has a track-record of solid research and important contributions to public policy," Dr. Smith said. "I'm pleased to join in their work of expanding educational and economic opportunity."