The Center for Individual Freedom is committed to the protection for individual freedom provided by the rule of law, as embodied in the federal and state constitutions. Those fundamental documents both express and safeguard society's commitment to individual freedom not only through specific protections such as the Bill of Rights, but also through structural protections that constrain and disperse governmental authority. The First Amendment, for example, provides critical direct protections for individual freedoms of speech and religion, as well as indirect structural curbs on the exercise of government power. The Center thus fully agrees with the sentiment expressed by the United States Supreme Court when it said that
"at the heart of the First Amendment is the notion that an individual should be free to believe as he will, and that in a free society one's beliefs should be shaped by his mind and his conscience rather than coerced by the State." — Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Educ., 431 U.S. 209, 234-35 (1977).
Recognition of the individual as a free and voluntary actor, whose freedom must be protected as much as possible against infringement by the state lies at the heart of the Center's philosophy. Not only does such individual freedom of belief and expression stand as a pre-eminent value in its own right, it also stands as a bulwark against all other attempts to improperly constrain freedom.
"We set up government by consent of the governed, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent. Authority here is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority." —West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 641 (1943).
The greatness of our Constitution lies not only in its protection of individual freedom through specific individual rights forbidding certain uses of power, but also in its structural protection of freedom through the many constraints it places on any exercise of power. For example, the Center strongly supports the separation of power among different and competing branches of government. It supports both vertical separation between state and federal governments as expressed in concepts of federalism, and horizontal separation between the different branches of the federal government as expressed through concepts such as the separation of powers and nondelegation doctrines.
As the United States Supreme Court has potently observed regarding horizontal separation of powers:
Regarding the vertical separation of powers at the heart of our federalism, Justice Kennedy has similarly observed:
"The theory that two [branches] accord more liberty than one requires for its realization two distinct and discernable lines of political accountability. [C]itizens must have some means of knowing which of the two [branches] to hold accountable for the failure to perform a given function. [Separation of powers] serves to assign political responsibility, not to obscure it." —Lopez, 514 U.S at 576-77 (alteration added, citations omitted).
Federalism and the nondelegation doctrine are intended to provide proper accountability for difficult and often divisive choices of government by demanding that particular entities take responsibility for those choices in a way that is transparent to the agents of government who must execute them, to the courts that must review them, and to the citizens who must finally judge them. Such assurances are an essential part of our constitutional system of government and play a vital role in securing individual freedom.
While constitutional restrictions on government power may often make the exercise of that power less efficient than it might be, rather than fear any such inefficiency we should applaud it as a bulwark preserving individual freedom. Authority too easily exercised often becomes insensitive at best and tyrannical at worst. The federal and state constitutions thus stand as essential protections of individual freedom.
The Center supports such constitutional protections through direct participation in the legal process, typically as amicus curiae in select cases before the United States Supreme Court and in other cases of national significance to individual freedoms. Copies of our amicus briefs, along with brief descriptions of the cases and related judicial decisions, are available below.
In addition to direct participation in the judicial process, the Center is committed to broad dissemination of information and ideas about legal issues affecting individual freedom. Through awareness, education, and candid debate about individual freedoms, members of the legal community and the general public will be better able to stand as guardians for such freedoms, either through their own participation in the legal process or at the ballot box. This web site includes several features to further that goal.