Week in Review: Violent Criminals Living on Your Property?

Would you want a dangerous criminal living on your property?

If you live in Seattle, one of many cities where violent crime is skyrocketing due to progressive policies gone wrong, a local law says you don’t have a choice. That’s why the Goldwater Institute filed a brief this week urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold property rights and strike down an unconstitutional Seattle ordinance that bars landlords from asking renters if they have a criminal record.

Landlords have a basic right not to rent to convicted criminals, who might be more likely to destroy property or skip out on rent. That will force landlords to raise their security deposits and increase rent for all tenants, to protect their property and make ends meet. Law-abiding renters will pay the price, as it will become harder for them to find affordable places to live.

Goldwater is successfully working to protect Americans’ right to use their property as they see fit—a right that crucially includes the freedom to exclude people from one’s property. It’s time for the Supreme Court to reaffirm that fundamental freedom.

Read more here. 

Goldwater to Defend Taxpayers in AZ Supreme Court—Again!

They just don’t learn. Government in Arizona is yet again stepping on taxpayers’ rights. Now, for the twelfth time, the Goldwater Institute is heading back to the Arizona Supreme Court to hold the line against government overreach.

The state Supreme Court is taking up Goldwater’s lawsuit on behalf of taxpayers challenging the constitutionality of government subsidies to public-sector labor unions. The case involves a practice called “release time”—one of the most offensive, blatantly corrupt ways that the government spends your money. It lets the government dole out untold millions to its favored special interests so that those special interests can…wait for it…lobby for more government.

Here’s how it works: governments agree to pay public-sector unions millions of dollars in salaries for employees who don’t work for the government, but who instead work to further their union’s interests, which usually include…you guessed it…bigger government. But the Arizona Constitution is clear that the government cannot give “gifts” to private organizations, including unions. And freedom of expression forbids the government from forcing anyone to fund political speech that they disagree with.

Release time is a pervasive practice nationwide, but Goldwater is fighting it in states ranging from New Jersey to Texas. It’s unconstitutional—and it’s just downright corrupt.

Read more about the case here, and learn more about release time here. 

These Cushy DEI Gigs Have Got to Go

$25 million at one government-run college. $18 million at another. More than $4 million at a third. Those are just three examples of how big-name public universities are pouring money into “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs—in just one year. Meanwhile, a recent report shows that public universities are eagerly hiring for cushy positions like “Talent Diversity Champion” that pay upward of six figures annually. But Goldwater is challenging the proliferation of the DEI administrators within the swamp of university middle management so that no one is forced to subsidize racism under the guise of DEI.

It’s a destructive scheme: DEI bureaucracies push progressivism on students and faculty, and so-called “bias-response” teams police student speech by punishing the slightest deviation from the script of political correctness, all while university bureaucrats silence dissenting voices.

Now Goldwater is paving the path toward a rebirth of academic freedom in higher education. This year in Arizona and Florida, we ended the left’s use of mandatory “diversity statements” to force ideological conformity on faculty job applicants. And in Texas, Goldwater completely defunded DEI bureaucracies in public higher education—enacting the most powerful reform of its kind in America.

Around the nation, Goldwater will always stand up to the radical DEI agenda.

Read more here. 

Get Your Tickets Now! Goldwater 2023 Annual Dinner & 35th Anniversary Celebration, Featuring Sen. Ted Cruz

Arizona’s premier liberty event returns for an in-person celebration featuring Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday, November 3, and you are cordially invited!

You can find out more about our Annual Dinner and RSVP here.

Episode 4: The Rule of Law

What does the “rule of law” really mean, and who does it apply to? Check out the fourth installment of the Foundations of Freedom video series, featuring Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur, for the answers.

Watch Episode 4 here.