Week in Review: Watch the Gun Ad the Government Banned

Flagstaff, Arizona, shooting range owner Rob Wilson has a message for the government tyrants who are trying to censor him:

“I spent 22 years in the Navy defending our Constitution and our rights, and I am not about to let a city council and mayor just walk all over my rights now,” Rob says.

Nor should he. So Goldwater attorneys are ratcheting up the pressure on the local government, which violated Rob’s constitutional rights by refusing to let him advertise for his gun range at the municipal airport—and now Rob’s story is garnering national attention from the likes of Fox News, the National Rifle Association (NRA), National Review, Reason magazine, The Federalist, and the Associated Press.

Not only did the city falsely claim Rob’s ad (watch the ad here) promoted “violence or anti-social behavior,” but officials are now trying to illegally ban all firearms-related ads. “With every day that goes by, the city is effectively denying Rob’s rights,” Goldwater Staff Attorney John Thorpe told National Review.

But the Goldwater Institute has a long, successful track record of defending free speech in Arizona and nationwide. And we won’t let this censorship stand.

Read more about this case here.

Supreme Court Can Protect Americans from Government Theft

One day, government officials arbitrarily decide to confiscate your car. They don’t accuse you of doing anything wrong, but they won’t give it back until a judge makes them—more than a year later.

That’s exactly what happened to two innocent Americans in an important case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last week involving government theft and due process rights. It’s possible under civil asset forfeiture, an unjust law that allows the government to steal innocent Americans’ property without charging them with a crime.

That’s why Goldwater filed a brief urging the justices to reaffirm basic due process rights and protect Americans from unconstitutional property forfeitures—part of our nation-leading work to end government theft. We’ve won numerous innocent Americans their property back after the government unjustly took it—thanks to our extensive American Freedom Network of pro bono attorneys in all 50 states. And we’re enacting common-sense reforms, like requiring the government to obtain a criminal conviction before taking property.

Now, the citizens of the land of the free deserve no less than a forceful ruling from the Supreme Court in favor of their fundamental rights.

Read more here.

Thank You, Veterans

America’s veterans deserve our eternal thanks for bravely answering the call whenever liberty comes under assault.

“Without those willing to serve and defend liberty, the forces of oppression would have conquered freedom long ago,” Goldwater Vice President for Litigation Jon Riches, a commander in the Navy Reserves, writes this Veterans Day. “Today we pay special gratitude to the men and women who have served our country in defense of freedom.”

We ought to show our gratitude not just with words, but with actions, too. That’s why Goldwater has passed our universal recognition of occupational licenses reform in more than half the states in the nation: so that military families, who are frequently on the move, can continue working in the profession of their choice when they cross state lines. And nationally, Goldwater enacted our Military Family Freedom Act at the federal level earlier this year to make it easier for military families to exercise their right to earn a living.

To our veterans and the families that support them, thank you for choosing to live a difficult life so that we can live our lives in peace and freedom.

Read Riches’ Veterans Day post here, and find out more about universal recognition here.

Episode 6: Why the Government Doesn’t Know Best

Government knows… best? Nope. In the sixth installment of the Foundations of Freedom video series, Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur discusses why we don’t need government regulation and control—we need free markets.

Watch Episode 6 here.