Want to communicate with the public on your own property in downtown Phoenix? The Phoenix government says you’d better get permission from the National Football League (NFL) first. Now the Goldwater Institute is stepping in on behalf of a local business owner, demanding that the government end this blatant, unconstitutional attack on Phoenicians’ free speech rights.
As it prepares to host Super Bowl LVII festivities in February, the city of Phoenix has ordered residents in virtually all of downtown Phoenix not to display temporary signage without the approval of the city and two private organizations: the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. “In other words, the city has banned hundreds of businesses, and thousands of residents, from speaking freely without permission from the government and two of the government’s handpicked entities,” Goldwater Institute Staff Attorney John Thorpe writes at In Defense of Liberty.
But helping host Super Bowl festivities should not come at the cost of violating Phoenicians’ constitutional right to express themselves freely. The Goldwater Institute is leading the nationwide charge to defend free expression, and yesterday’s letter makes clear that Goldwater will never stop fighting to vindicate free speech and restore constitutional limits on governmental power.
Read more at In Defense of Liberty.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed Americans how accelerating innovation in medicine can save countless lives. “But now, it appears the federal government has once again turned its back on rapidly approved vaccines and therapeutics—and the consequences are dire for terminally ill patients, pre-term babies and their mothers, and all who are holding out hope for potentially lifesaving treatments,” Goldwater Institute Vice President for Healthcare Policy Naomi Lopez writes for RealClearHealth.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration won’t even consider whether to approve a promising new stem cell therapy that offers a glimmer of hope to the 30,000 Americans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Meanwhile, countless infants and their mothers could also fall victim to the FDA’s latest tilt away from innovation, as the agency is considering the withdrawal of its only approved treatment for mothers at high risk of pre-term labor. And as if that weren’t enough, the FDA is poised to add even more bureaucratic barriers to the accelerated approval process for new, potentially lifesaving treatments.
It’s wrong. And lives are at stake. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is promoting legislation that reforms the FDA’s archaic policies, including the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments. That law, which Goldwater already passed this year in Arizona, extends the Institute’s landmark Right to Try reform to personalized medicine, so that critically ill patients don’t have to wait on the FDA to access potentially lifesaving treatment that’s tailor-made for each individual. As Lopez writes, “Innovation isn’t just a pandemic need: it must be a constant presence in our fight to put patients first, and it’s a necessary component of healthcare modernization.”
Read more at RealClearHealth.
Everyone has the right to support the causes they believe in without fear of harassment or retaliation, but that right is now under assault in Arizona from the recently passed Proposition 211. This week the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit challenging Prop 211’s unconstitutional requirements, continuing its legacy of spearheading the nationwide fight to protect donor privacy.
Prop 211 requires nonprofit organizations that speak on matters of public concern to turn over their donors’ names, addresses, employers, and contribution amounts to the government, which will then publicize their private data. “The result will be less free speech, more harassment, and an uglier political discourse,” Goldwater Institute Senior Attorney Scott Day Freeman says. Prop 211 flies in the face of the Arizona Constitution’s strong protections for free speech and privacy. And it violates the state constitution’s separation of powers principle by giving immense and unreviewable legislative and executive powers to the Arizona Clean Elections Commission.
The Goldwater Institute is executing a multi-strategy plan to protect donor privacy in Arizona and around the country. And Goldwater will continue to defend that work by fighting Prop 211’s full-frontal assault on free speech every step of the way.
Read more at In Defense of Liberty.
