Week in Review—Elijah’s stand: Let me try to live

Elijah Stacy, who suffers from the same fatal, incurable muscle-wasting disease as his two brothers, one of whom passed away at 14, knows all too well the brutality and pain that a rare disease causes.

But Elijah has never let that stop him. In a special Goldwater Institute webinar this week, Elijah recounted his inspiring story fighting Duchenne muscular dystrophy and explained why he’s advocating for Goldwater’s Right to Try for Individualized Treatments. This landmark Right to Try expansion—which seven states have made law, including Arkansas just this week—creates a pathway for Americans to access groundbreaking, individualized treatments that have not yet received approval from the FDA.

“Why should I have to beg the federal government for permission to try to save my own life? The reality for me is that I’m going to die, likely before I reach middle-age,” Elijah writes for Fox News. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Watch the webinar here, read Elijah’s Fox News op-ed here, and find out more about the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments here.

Mission Creep

What happens when a single private corporation, cloaked in the guise of public service, becomes the arbiter of what students learn about their nation’s past?

The College Board, the billion-dollar entity behind the Advanced Placement program, has quietly transformed from a gatekeeper of academic rigor to an unelected authority that implements conformity in how American high school students understand history, Goldwater’s Carl Paulus and Timothy K. Minella write in the Washington Times. Indeed, the College Board wields its authority as a modern-day censorship board, pushing a progressive version of history that marginalizes the Constitution and our founding principles—all while collecting millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.

It’s time to end this government-backed monopoly over what our children learn.

Read more here, and read Goldwater’s report exposing the College Board here.

Goldwater to Bureaucrats: See You in Court

Amid a housing crisis, Arizona Department of Water Resources bureaucrats reporting to Gov. Katie Hobbs unilaterally imposed an illegal rule that shuts down home construction in parts of Maricopa County.

Bureaucrats can’t act like mini-czars, Goldwater’s Jon Riches writes in the Arizona Republic. Under Arizona law, regulatory agencies looking to enact sweeping policies must first get the go-ahead from elected lawmakers. That’s why Goldwater is suing the Hobbs Administration over the new rule. “Arizona is not a command-and-control, Soviet-style government. We live in a republic,” Riches adds.

Water bureaucrats promised a “fight” over these rules. As Riches explains, “When you trample the rights of Arizonans—and crush the dreams of everyday families trying to achieve homeownership—that’s a fight we’re ready to take.”

See you in court.

Read more here.