Twenty-Five Years Litigating for Liberty

By Steve Buckstein

How many attorneys do you know who make their living defending liberty? Well, 43 attorneys work full-time at the national public interest law firm Institute for Justice. They protect school choice, economic liberty, the First Amendment, and private property. Supported by generous donors, the Institute for Justice never charges its clients.

Founded 25 years ago, the Institute for Justice has litigated over 200 cases, including five before the U.S. Supreme Court, where it won four times. The fifth case led to the infamous Kelo decision, where the Court unfortunately seemed to forget that private property cannot be taken through eminent domain for a “public purpose,” but only for a “public use.”

This year, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey appointed Institute for Justice co-founder Clint Bolick to the state Supreme Court, saying that “Clint is nationally renowned and respected as a constitutional law scholar and as a champion of liberty.”

It is fitting on this 25^th Anniversary of Clint Bolick’s Institute for Justice that Oregon’s free-market think tank Cascade Policy Institute has chosen him as the Keynote Speaker at our 25^th Anniversary Dinner on October 20. There, Justice Bolick will talk about how important defending personal and economic liberty has been—and still is in his new role on the Court. You won’t want to miss his inspiring talk.

For full details and to RSVP, go to CascadePolicy.org/25.

Steve Buckstein is Founder and Senior Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.