California is well known for its world-class wine industry. Unfortunately, it’s also known for its burdensome business regulations. Now, officials in Santa Barbara County are forcing local wineries to join a marketing collective and to pay for its speech—even if they disagree with it. That’s unconstitutional, which is why the Goldwater Institute is helping the family-owned Flying Goat Cellars winery fight the illegal mandate.
Last year, Santa Barbara officials created a wine “Business Improvement District” managed by the local Vintners Association—which all local wineries are now required to join and fund with a 1% fee on their sales. But that mandate violates the First Amendment’s protections for the freedom of association and freedom of speech, since the wineries are compelled to pay for the association’s marketing. The mandate also violates the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause by forcing Flying Goat to hand its earnings over to a private organization with no legitimate public use.
Santa Barbara leaders need to amend their ordinance to make both the 1% fee and association membership voluntary. In the meantime, Goldwater will continue to fight for Flying Goat’s right to make great wine and serve their customers on their terms.
Credit Card Price Controls—A Bad Move for Americans
When it comes to price controls, there’s really nothing new under the sun: politicians declare victory while markets are distorted, access is reduced, and consumers are left worse off than before. That’s why the Goldwater Institute opposes Washington’s latest price control proposal—a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates.
It may sound like a good idea—relief for families facing rising costs—but capping interest rates will end up hurting the very people the plan is meant to help. Lenders will tighten standards, reduce exposure, and restrict the supply of credit. Working class households and small businesses, who are often dependent on short-term, flexible credit to manage their bills, will be pushed to the margins or shut out entirely.
Goldwater supports a better approach to help Americans pay down credit card debt and put more money in their pockets—free-market strategies that make it easier to work and start a business. Affordability simply can’t be legislated by decree. It must be built through hard work and broad-based growth spurred on by free enterprise.
Defending the ‘Inviolate’ Right to a Jury
The Arizona Constitution is clear: the right to a jury trial is “inviolate.” Now, the Arizona Supreme Court must decide, can a state commission with constitutional authority to levy fines ignore that right? Of course it can’t, just as it can’t ignore other rights, the Goldwater Institute argued in a brief—a point echoed by the court during recent oral arguments.
The case involves Arizona’s Corporation Commission which accused a company called EFG of securities fraud and wants to handle the matter before an in-house administrative law judge. The commission contends that its fining authority allows it to ignore that “inviolate” right to a jury trial. But as Goldwater pointed out, by that logic the commission’s taxing authority would give it leeway to ignore any right guaranteed by the state’s constitution, including the right to free speech and the right to due process.
There was a lengthy silence in court when the commission’s lawyer argued that the commission would respect rights that aren’t inconsistent with how it operates—but not the right to a jury. Government bodies don’t get to pick and choose the rights they’ll respect, which is why the Goldwater Institute will always fight government overreach in Arizona and across the country.
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