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LIVING LIBERTY
EFF LAUNCHES
CONSTITUTIONAL
LAW CENTER E
vergreen Freedom Foundation is pleased to announce the launching of the Constitutional Law Center, a project designed to protect individual rights and hold government and government officials accountable. Government is often a citizen’s greatest adversary. Bureaucratic officials muzzle political and religious free speech for many citizens. They prevent most parents from deciding how their children will be educated; take away private property; prevent access to pubic records; rig the system intended to provide equal economic opportunity; and undermine free and fair elections. EFF has discussed and realizes the need for freedom-oriented groups to engage in legal action. It’s not enough to recommend good policies; sometimes they have to be defended in court. Freedom requires vigilance on many fronts. CLC will address this need. For more than a decade, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has conducted strategic litigation. The legal arena must be entered with deliberate purpose to ensure that these efforts have lasting impact, hence the establishment of the Consti-
• LEFT: AUTHORS JONATHAN BECHTLE AND MICHAEL REITZ DISCUSS THEIR NEW BOOK, TO PROTECT AND MAINTAIN INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO THE WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION • RIGHT: EFF SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS THE RIGHTS OF TEACHER SUSAN WIGGS
by Michael Reitz
tutional Law Center, a public interest litigation center within EFF. The Constitutional Law Center will represent Washington citizens in carefully selected cases that have potential for broad impact. Staff attorneys will also assist EFF in its constant function as a government watchdog. Much of this year was spent establishing the groundwork, and the effects of targeted legal action are already being seen; • EFF successfully defended a teacher’s right to send her union dues to a charity that fights sex-trafficking—a charity the union opposed! • EFF is pursuing a complaint against the Secretary of State for failing to prevent improper voter registrations. • EFF “friend-of-the-court” briefs have offered legal and policy considerations in critical cases before state and federal courts. • Recently, a state agency considered lobbying rules for Internet activities. EFF and others warned that such rules would suppress legitimate public debate. As a result, the agency tabled the proposal
EFF and CLC can offer clients free representation because of your support. Donations toward the litigation department are tax deductible, and EFF is pleased to announce that a generous donor is willing to do a 2 for 1 match for all investments made in this project. This will multiply your donation by 150%!
EFF aims to restore the critical balance between government’s important, but limited, role and an individual’s ability to control his or her destiny as a free and responsible member of society. Accomplishing this objective requires strategic victories in the courts of law and the court of public opinion. We hope you will join us! Michael Reitz is general counsel of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.