They told parents to stay silent.
They told patients to wait.
They told taxpayers to pay up.
In 2025, the Goldwater Institute said “No!”—and won.
From rooting out DEI at public universities to advocating for the Right to Try cutting-edge medical treatments, the Goldwater Institute achieved real victories for freedom over the last year. You can learn all about how Goldwater is fighting to keep this the Land of the Free in our newly released 2025 Liberty in Action Annual Report.
Last year alone, Goldwater enacted nearly 50 laws aimed at protecting liberty across the country. Our scholars worked with K-12 schools and universities to restore the teaching of America’s founding principles, while our attorneys were engaged in 40 active lawsuits protecting taxpayers, defending parents’ rights, and fighting government overreach.
As we turn the page to 2026, Goldwater will continue fighting for freedom in state courts, legislatures, and communities nationwide. Of course, we couldn’t do it without the generous support of or donors who allow us to empower all Americans to live freer and happier lives.
Read the 2025 Liberty in Action Report.
Public schools should never hide critical information from parents about their kids’ mental or physical health. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is urging the Supreme Court to take up the case of Amber Lavigne, a Maine mom who was left in the dark when a school social worker began secretly advising her 13-year-old on gender transitioning.
The ruse unraveled after Amber, while cleaning her child’s room, discovered a chest binder—an undergarment, provided by the social worker, that compresses breasts to make the wearer appear male. By that time, school officials had already started referring to Amber’s child by a new name and pronouns. When Amber confronted them, both the principal and superintendent justified the social worker’s actions.
Parents like Amber can’t meaningfully exercise their constitutional right to direct the education, upbringing, and healthcare of their kids when school officials hide important information from them. The Goldwater Institute will always hold school leaders accountable when they try to usurp the role of parents.
Read more here.
No one’s professional fate should be contingent on subsidizing speech they disagree with. That’s a key lesson from the Goldwater Institute’s victory in Oregon—more than six years in the making—where the U.S. District Court just entered a final judgement in favor of two lawyers who objected to political commentary by the state bar paid for in part by their mandatory dues.
When the Oregon State Bar published a statement critical of President Donald Trump in its magazine in 2017, the two lawyers objected, arguing that it constituted “compelled speech” and “compelled association” because they are forced to join the bar and pay dues. Even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the lawyers’ First Amendment rights had been violated, the bar fought during the remedies phase to cure any future violations with a disclaimer that its statements aren’t necessarily the views of all members. But Goldwater and its clients fought on until the bar relented.
The win in Oregon sends a clear message to bar associations nationwide: the Goldwater Institute will fight—as long as it takes—when they compel speech and violate their members’ constitutional rights.
Read more here.
