Week in Review: Standing Up to Government Theft

Imagine you are sitting in your home when the police knock on your door. Officers enter and search your entire home, seizing your personal property. After your property is taken, you are given a slip of paper listing your seized belongings. The police then leave, and you are left with few answers. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Luis Garcia—until the Goldwater Institute got involved.

Luis collected $5,300 to support a youth soccer tournament, but when the Scottsdale Police Department raided his Mesa home—based on an investigation into Luis’s adult son—the charity money was wrongfully seized. Luis had never been charged with—or even suspected of being connected to—a crime. Now, thanks to the Goldwater Institute, the money has been returned.

Read more about Luis’ story—and how Goldwater got involved—in a new In Defense of Liberty post.

The “Balloondoggle” Saga Continue in this Arizona County

In 2015, Pima County, Arizona, borrowed $15 million—using county property as collateral—to construct a headquarters building, balloon factory, and balloon launchpad for World View Enterprises to send passengers on balloon rides to the stratosphere at a cost of $75,000. This week, the Goldwater Institute returned to court to fight this unconstitutional action, in the latest chapter in this “balloondoggle” story.

In a hearing before a trial judge in Tucson on Wednesday, Goldwater Institute attorneys argued that Pima County officials violated the Arizona Constitution by giving out five separate multimillion-dollar subsidies to World View. Goldwater Institute Vice President for Litigation Timothy Sandefur explains at In Defense of Liberty why Pima County’s handouts to World View violated the state Constitution’s “Gift Clause,” which prohibits the state and counties from loaning money to any individual, association, or corporation.

Women Want Flexibility in Their Work

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day—which took place this past week—is worthy of celebration. But more important is ensuring that individual women are free to pursue the work that matches their unique wants and needs, rather than pushing them toward the careers bureaucrats think they should want.

While some women seek full-time employment, others desire a part-time role, and still others want the flexibility to work the hours they choose. As Goldwater Institute Executive Vice President Christina Sandefur has written, “studies show that, on the whole, while men place a high premium on a larger paycheck, women value flexibility at work more than men do. That’s why the number of women-owned businesses increased by 3,000 percent since 1972, and women are increasingly choosing to work in the ‘gig’ economy.” But government’s one-size-fits-all, top-down agendas regarding work show little understanding of the basic truth that women want flexibility in their work.

Read more at In Defense of Liberty about how what the Goldwater Institute is doing to help create conditions under which women can thrive and succeed in their work, like making it easier for women—and all workers—to earn a living without having to obtain a government permission slip.