Arizona House Honors Goldwater Institute for 30 Years of Defending Freedom

May 7, 2019

For 30 years, the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute has been working to empower all Americans to live freer, happier lives. This week, the Institute was honored to be recognized by the Arizona House of Representatives for its 30 years of defending freedom with a special proclamation offered by Representative Anthony Kern.

“Arizona is fortunate to have one of the country’s leading free-market organizations right in our own backyard,” Representative Kern said. “The Goldwater Institute has been staunchly defending freedom and protecting liberty for 30 years, and the contributions they’ve made to our state and the country have expanded the rights of individuals and saved millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. I congratulate the Goldwater Institute on 30 successful years and urge them to keep up the fight for freedom.”

Rep. Kern offered the following proclamation:

WHEREAS, for thirty years, the Goldwater Institute has been dedicated to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives. Founded in 1988 in Arizona with Senator Barry Goldwater’s blessing, the Institute fights 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; and

WHEREAS, in one of its greatest accomplishments for individual freedom, the Institute led the nationwide effort to protect the right of terminally ill patients to try medicines that have not yet been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Forty-one states enacted Right to Try, and last year President Trump signed Right to Try into law, protecting the freedom for all Americans; and

WHEREAS, the Goldwater Institute has also led in expanding individuals’ right to earn a living through occupational licensing reforms. The Goldwater Institute has led that effort, authoring the nation’s first Right to Earn a Living Act, which became law in 2017. Under that law, state government must show some legitimate public harm before job seekers can be shut out of a profession; and

WHEREAS, the Goldwater Institute has also led the nation in advancing school choice. In 1998, the Institute released a report that presented the first-ever charter school funding model for Arizona, and in 2011, the Institute led Arizona in enacting Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, giving special needs students and their families more opportunity to design educational experiences that work for them; and

WHEREAS, the Goldwater Institute has also been a stalwart defender of Arizona taxpayers. Thanks to a 2010 lawsuit brought by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of Phoenix taxpayers, the Arizona Supreme Court reaffirmed the Gift Clause, a state constitutional provision that bars the government from using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private enterprises; and

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Representative Anthony Kern, invite the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona to join me in honoring the Goldwater Institute for thirty years of defending freedom. We congratulate the Goldwater Institute for its leadership and look forward to partnering with them for thirty more years and beyond.

Dated this sixth day of May 2019