Week in Review: California 2.0?

Your friendly reminder from the government: Kindly refrain from using your AC, washer, dryer, and oven during peak demand hours.

It’s the grim reality in California, and if special interest groups got their way, Arizona would go green at all costs too. But it’s not going to happen. The lights will stay on in Arizona for years to come after Goldwater successfully urged the Arizona Corporation Commission to enact changes ensuring that residents can rely on cost-effective natural gas, nuclear, or battery storage energy instead of intermittent—and expensive—wind and solar energy sources.

After all, Arizonans deserve better than for their state to become California 2.0.

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Goldwater Scores Free Speech Victory in Oregon

Imaging running a small business, but with one big catch: it’s illegal to accurately describe what you’re selling.

Sound kooky? It is, and it violates basic free speech rights, too. But in Oregon, bureaucrats have been censoring truthful information about e-cigarettes (i.e. vapes) by prohibiting retailers from putting pictures of apples, strawberries, and oranges—or those very words—on their product labels, even as these perfectly legal products are helping countless people to quit smoking.

Not anymore. This week, the Goldwater Institute scored a massive victory for free speech when the Oregon Court of Appeals struck down these unconstitutional restrictions after we filed suit on behalf of vape shop owner Paul Bates. As Paul explains: “Shouldn’t my customers have access to the truthful, accurate information they need to make wise choices?”

Read more here.

Defending Parental Rights in Federal Court

Parents can’t parent when public schools cut them out.

That’s what Goldwater Institute attorneys told a federal appellate court in Boston this month as they defended Maine mom Amber Lavigne’s constitutionally protected parental rights after public school officials purposefully concealed important information about her 13-year-old daughter’s health and wellbeing. Our lawsuit is drawing national attention, and attorneys general in twelve states have weighed in to support parental rights and Goldwater’s argument.

Public school districts across the country are trying to usurp the role of parents. We’re taking a stand for families and the Constitution.

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