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About the Goldwater Institute

The Goldwater Institute is the nation’s preeminent liberty organization scoring real wins for freedom from coast to coast. We’re committed to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives, and we accomplish tangible results for liberty by working in state courts, legislatures, and communities nationwide to advance, defend, and strengthen the freedom guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and the fifty states.

Founded in 1988 in Arizona with Senator Barry Goldwater’s blessing, the Institute is a free-market public policy research and litigation organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, economic freedom, and individual liberty, with a focus on education, free speech, healthcare, equal protection, property rights, occupational licensing, and constitutional limits.

The U.S. Constitution provides a basic minimum of protection for individual rights, while leaving states free to enact laws that protect those rights more broadly. That’s why we direct our efforts at the states, the “laboratories of democracy,” to introduce innovative ideas that expand freedom. And that’s why we litigate in state courts to defend individual liberty.

More Freedom for All Americans

Kayla Svedin
Glenn Odegard

Americans should be free to make their own decisions about how to live their lives, follow their dreams, and pursue their happiness. This belief inspires everything we do at the Goldwater Institute—and you can see it in the important work we’re accomplishing. In an era when governments at all levels have been clamping down on our individual liberties, Goldwater is winning more freedom for all Americans.

We’re proud to be the only organization in the country that works in courtrooms, capitols, and communities every single day to defend individual liberties and pass laws that stop government oppression. Since our founding in 1988, we’ve scored hundreds of victories for liberty and improved the lives of countless Americans.

With your support, we work day and night because we know that the spirit of America must be saved. No matter where the battle takes us— from classrooms to Capitol Hill—we’ll never stop fighting to preserve the freedom that ensures all of us can pursue our own American Dream.

Goldwater Defends the American Dream

  • Many professions require a government permission slip to work, but Goldwater is breaking down those barriers with state laws that are empowering countless Americans to exercise their right to earn a living without having to jump through unnecessary, costly, and time-consuming bureaucratic hoops.
  • We’re working to ensure every family can choose the best education for their child by expanding school choice and advocating for our landmark academic transparency reform, which protects parents’ right to know what their children are being taught, including radical politics.
  • We’re fighting to make sure our most intimate, personal health decisions are made by us and our doctors, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. This includes giving terminally ill patients in every state new hope by enacting our Right to Try law, which protects their ability to try potentially life-saving medication.
  • Taxpayers can keep more of their hard-earned money thanks to our work to simplify tax laws and reduce the tax burden on hardworking women and men.
  • The freedom of speech is under attack on college campuses, but Goldwater is fighting to defend it with our Campus Free Speech law, which ensures that protesters at public universities can’t cancel or shut down speakers they don’t like.
  • As government bureaucrats try to tell property owners what they can and can’t do on their own land, we’re protecting the most intimate, private right of all—the fundamental right to use your property as you see fit.
  • We are upholding constitutional limits on government by defending and restoring the rights of the American people.

For over 30 years, the Goldwater Institute has fought in defense of liberty from our home in Phoenix, Arizona, reaching all corners of the country. That work continues today. Learn more about our 30 years of accomplishments.

Our Annual Report and Financial Information

The Goldwater Institute receives financial support from individuals across all 50 states.

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Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

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