What did the Founders really mean when they said “All men are created equal”? Whose ideas informed Thomas Jefferson when he drafted the Declaration of Independence? The Goldwater Institute’s Timothy Sandefur answers these questions and more in a new webinar on the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
In the webinar, Sandefur, the author of Proclaiming Liberty: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence, explores the story behind the Declaration, including history that most Americans never learned. Sandefur explains the many abuses by English Parliament that led to the American Revolution, why separating from England was a “terrifying prospect” for many colonists, and why the U.S. Constitution is not a pro-slavery document. “The idea that the American Revolution was in some sense fought to protect slavery is, frankly, absurd,” Sandefur said.
Sandefur’s narrative brings to life the “American mind” as the Founders sought to express it. Check out the Goldwater Institute webinar to understand why their revolutionary ideas are still relevant today.
Despite the use of feel-good buzzwords, so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or DEI, is really just race- and sex-based discrimination in disguise. North Carolina is the latest state to root out radical DEI programs from the state’s government and schools after lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto and approved three bills that contain anti-discrimination provisions modeled after Goldwater Institute policies.
House Bill 171 prohibits DEI practices, policies, and initiatives in state government, while Senate bills 227 and 558 end DEI practices, initiatives, and mandatory courses in K-12 schools and in higher education. The bills provide an emphatic “No” to radical DEI gurus who preach that “oppressors” have rigged American institutions to subjugate the “oppressed” and the only fix is to pursue equity by discriminating against the oppressors.
North Carolina’s legislation will help restore the state’s schools to their core purpose of educating, not indoctrinating students. The Goldwater Institute will continue fighting divisive DEI practices and programs across the country.
One reason property rights are so critical is that they ensure that no one, especially not the government, can prevent an owner from using their property in harmless ways of their choosing. That’s why the Goldwater Institute’s American Freedom Network of pro-bono attorneys is backing Chris Bank’s right to grow harmless sunflowers in his Missouri yard.
For the past several years, the City of St. Peters has targeted Bank’s sunflowers and cited him for violating an ordinance that requires homeowners to devote at least 70% of their front yard to growing turf grass. In previous years, the city dropped its case when Bank demanded a jury trial. This year, however, a trial court held that Bank wasn’t entitled to a jury trial. But Goldwater’s American Freedom Network attorney appealed the case, and the Missouri Court of Appeals has agreed that Bank is entitled to a jury trial after all.
City leaders must now decide if they’ll allow a jury to try the case or if they’ll simply leave Bank—and his sunflowers—alone. It’s time for the courts to make it clear that the U.S. Constitution protects the fundamental right for people to use their property in ways that don’t harm anyone.
