Week in Review: Economic Hurricane Ahead? Americans Are Taking Action

“Brace yourself” for an economic “hurricane,” says JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon, who recently weighed in on the daunting economic headwinds looming just over America’s horizon. Americans are doing just that by moving to states that are open for business—states like Arizona, which has adopted the Goldwater Institute’s vision of getting government out of the way. Case in point: Arizona’s population is expected to grow by at least 44,376 people by 2030 thanks in part to Goldwater’s first-in-the-nation 2019 reform, according to a study by the Common Sense Institute. 

With bleak forecasts filling the headlines, is it any wonder people are ditching states with oppressive taxes and crippling regulations, and moving to places where they can have more opportunity?

Americans want the freedom to work at the job of their choice, and giving them this freedom boosts economic growth. Particularly amid these uncertain times, lawmakers should take note and act accordingly: As inflation balloons, gas prices skyrocket, and supply chain shortages drag on, Americans will only continue packing their bags for states where opportunity awaits. 

Read more about the impact of Goldwater’s Breaking Down Barriers to Work Reform here. 

Missouri Legislature Brings Outdated Regulations into the 21st Century

In exciting news out of the Show-me state, the Goldwater Institute passed our Home-Based Business Fairness Act through the Missouri legislature. This critical reform empowers hardworking Missourians to run their small businesses from home, without having to first jump through hoops to get a costly, time-consuming permission slip from their local government.

Tutors, web designers, data entry technicians, accountants, lawyers, psychologists, gift basket designers, florists, personal trainers, podcasters, music teachers, bookkeepers, and countless others can all operate home-based businesses without causing noise or disruption to people next door. Unfortunately, many local ordinances are immune to innovation—the products of a bygone, pre-internet era. These mandates require residents to waste time and money getting an official sign-off on their home-based businesses, and they impose stringent rules that limit the kind of work that can be done, the number of employees a business can have, and even the kinds of materials someone can have in their own home.

That’s why our reform brings outdated regulations into the 21st century, reducing confusion and empowering entrepreneurs to go after the American dream.

You can find out more about this reform at In Defense of Liberty. 

Goldwater Goes to the U.S. Supreme Court Again!

The Goldwater Institute is carrying on our legacy of successfully defending constitutional rights at the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the years, we’ve achieved multiple victories for freedom in the nation’s highest court, which only takes a fraction of a percentage of all cases it’s asked to hear. This week, we’re back at it, filing a brief that urges the justices to strike down the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

While our Constitution guarantees every American equal protection under the law, ICWA discriminates against Native American children and the adults who love them based on skin color. The 1978 statute “blocks state child welfare officers from protecting abused children from harm if they qualify as ‘Indian,’ because it requires them to provide more evidence of abuse before the state can act,” Goldwater Vice President for Litigation Timothy Sandefur writes at In Defense of Liberty. Moreover, ICWA’s race-based “placement preferences” require that “Indian children” be placed with “Indian families” rather than with adults who are white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc.— thus preventing them from finding permanent, loving, adoptive homes when needed.

Goldwater has done more work than any other organization in the country to defend Native children and the adults who love them from ICWA’s unconstitutional and unjust burdens. Our brief, which is co-signed by several families who have suffered terrible injustices because of ICWA, addresses some of the common misconceptions surrounding this law.

You can read more about our brief at In Defense of Liberty.