GRANT PROPOSAL RECORD Goldwater Institute ADDRESS: 500 East Coronado Road Phoenix, AZ 85004 CONTACT: Ms. Darcy A. Oisen AMOUNT REQUESTED: STAFF RECOMMENDATION: PROJECT TITLE: BOARD MEMBERS AFFILIATED WITH REQUEST: STAFF: MEETTNG DATE: PROPOSAL $400,000 $250,000 To support a state-based litigation alliance Mike Hartmann 11/10/2014 BACKGROUND: The Goldwater Institute in Phoenix requests a grant award in renewed support of its state-based litigation alliance, an effort begun last year again, in large part at Bradley?s behest and with special, substantial support to expand the capacity of state think tanks to include litigation within their institutional skill sets. Under the leadership of its president and chief executive officer, Bradley Prize recipient Darcy Olsen, Goldwater celebrated its 25th anniversary two years ago. Its Centerfor Constitutional Litigation (CCL), supported by Bradley since 2007, is in its seventh year. With both its activities in Arizona and its cooperation with institutional colleagues across the country, CCL has already established itself as a leader in developing state-based strategies to protect freedom against further governmental intrusion. Under the leadership and with the "light touch? of Bradley Prize recipient Clint Bolick, it and its new state litigation alliance have offered increasingly in-depth advice to state think tanks that will have led to the creation of 13 similar centers including the Bradley~supported Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty (a request from which is pending in the Bradley Prize recrprent Legacy sector) and its Barder?supported Center for Competitive Federalism. Olsen Bolick and his colleagues also continuously advance innovative legal and policy strategies that are often replicable by these entities, which are listed at the top of the next page. Many of them already send representatives to the Bolick-chaired meetings during the larger annual meetings of the Bradley- supported Heritage Foundation?s Resource Bank and the also-Bradley- supported State Policy Network. Some of the existing centers are decidedly stronger than others, of course, and not at! strong think tanks have added litigation to their arsenals. Others lack sufficiently strong leadership to even explore the possibility of doing so. Goldwater has a totai of six attorneys on staff. They currently are working on more than a dozen pending cases. Their collective experience includes winning cases at the US. Supreme Court (campaign finance), the Arizona Bradley Prize reclplent Supreme Court (corporate subsidies and free speech), federal district court 50?le (free speech), and lower state courts (contracts clause, union release time, and public records, among others). Its state litigation aliiance helps research and identify those states that have greatest potential for advancing state-constitutional iaw -- then trains and, if asked, mentors attorneys who can either lead or staff existing or newly created legal centers elsewhere, with an intensive ?litigation boot camp? for interested conscripts. Bolick and the litigation alliance provide inteliectual leadership, as well, making a robust effort to teach others about key constitutional clauses, case law, and opportunities to make headway. On issues with which CCL has particular expertise, the alliance allows it to partner even more closely with groups that either lack a legal center or have a center lacking the requisite expertise. In states without litigation centers, Goldwater would like to begin compiling lists of attorneys willing to work pro bone with whom it could cooperate this year. Budget information: Goldwater?s overall annual expense budgets exceed $4 million. non- anonymous sources of philanthropic support have included the Walton Family, John Dawson, and Castle Rock Foundations, and the Searle Freedom and Norton Family Living Trusts. The 2015?16 budget for its CCL in particular is $1,190,000. Conservative public-interest litigation entities in the states 1851 Center for Constitutional Law (Ohio) Beacon Center of Tennessee Civitas lnstitute?s Center for Law and Freedom (North Carolina) Freedom Foundation's legal center (Washington State) Goldwater lnstitute?s Center for Constitutional Litigation (Arizona) Idaho Freedom Foundation?s legal center 5 Illinois Policy Institute?s Liberty Justice Center Mackinac Center Legal Foundation (Michigan) Maine Heritage Policy Center?s Center for Regulatory Reform and Constitutional Government North Dakota Policy Council's Center for Constitutional Law Nevada Policy Research lnstit?te?s Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty Wyoming Liberty Group'sdegal center institute for Justice state chapters Arizona Ftorida Minnesota Texas Washington STAFF RECOMMENDATION: All state constitutions contain greater constraints on government power and protections of individual rights than the federal constitution. They thus provide good avenues forthe advancement of the Bradiey brothers? targer vision and their Foundation?s mission. Unfortunately, however, Bolick is correct to conclude that they are generally underutitized. For more than two decades now, Bolick himself has been a leading public litigator working to protect freedom. Most notably, his work in the areas of education, property rights, and the financiai accountability of public institutions has been groundbreaking. His lifelong body of work has heiped set the standard for how to employ litigation in defense of our liberties, now through aggressively using this underutilized avenue of state constitutions. Goldwater?s newly formed state litigation aliiance retains great potential to continue maximizing the benefit of Bradley?s much other recent strategic grantmaking to improve conservative state infrastructures. Therefore, staff recommends a $250,000 grant to Goldwater for the alliance. If awarded, this would be $100,000 less than last year?s initially high, "seed level" of funding for the same purpose.