The Goldwater Institute’s 2026 is off to an extraordinary start. So far this year, we have worked with partners across the country to pass 14 bills expanding freedom and reining in government, with several additional reforms nearing the finish line. At the same time, we are advancing more than 100 bills across 32 states. And Goldwater attorneys are defending individual liberty through 40 active cases nationwide, including in six state supreme courts.
Among the most significant reforms is Georgia’s Safe Neighborhoods Act, which addresses an increasingly urgent reality in too many cities: homelessness is growing, and local governments are refusing to enforce basic public safety laws, leaving residents and businesses to bear the cost. Under the Act, when local governments fail to enforce these laws and property owners suffer the consequences, those owners have the right to seek compensation. This reform is the result of a hard-fought, three-year effort and is now awaiting the governor’s signature.
Goldwater is also restoring constitutional limits on the administrative state—the unelected bureaucrats who impose regulations that restrict Americans’ ability to earn a living, build a home, or exercise their freedom of speech. Our judicial deference reform ensures that courts interpret the law independently, rather than deferring to administrative agencies. This reestablishes a core separation-of-powers safeguard. The reform has passed in Kansas, is pending in Georgia, and is gaining traction in New Hampshire.
After leading the nationwide Right to Try movement, Goldwater is taking the next step. Right to Try for Individualized Treatments is now law in 17 states, giving patients with rare and ultra-rare diseases the freedom to pursue options when conventional pathways have failed. Missouri and Oklahoma are poised to enact the law, signaling a broader shift toward personalized medicine and reinforcing a simple principle: medical decisions should rest with patients and their doctors, not bureaucrats.
In the courts, Goldwater is winning cases that directly challenge government overreach. In California, we represent Flying Goat Winery in a case against a county that imposed an unlawful mandate forcing wineries to fund government speech. In Rhode Island, we are supporting a mother challenging a $117,000 public records paywall used to shield school curriculum after a teacher mocked the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In Arizona, Goldwater represents the Center for Arizona Policy, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, and two private donors urging the state supreme court to strike down a donor-doxxing law that threatens nonprofit privacy. Before the Oregon Supreme Court, we are defending business speech against government censorship tied to e-cigarette regulations that would ban truthful, descriptive language on vaping products.
These efforts are paired with concrete wins. In Prescott, Arizona, Goldwater secured a property rights victory under its Permit Freedom Act, clearing the way for a long-delayed hotel project. In Arkansas, it prevailed before the state supreme court in striking down an illegal, government-backed trash monopoly.
Taken together, the model is clear: Goldwater’s legislation sets the agenda, its policy victories codify it, and its litigation defends and expands it to ensure these reforms endure. At this point in the year, the trajectory is unmistakable. From property rights in Georgia to judicial reform in Kansas and beyond, the Goldwater Institute is not reacting to policy debates—it is shaping them, state by state, with a focus on durable, enforceable protections for liberty.
