On July 3rd, Independence Eve, FREE celebrated its 20th anniversary. While we always enjoy Fourth of July celebrations, we wanted more than food, fireworks, friends, and frivolity. An important part of FREE’s mission is to harmonize responsible liberty with environmental quality. Hence we designed a special program to recognize our glorious, though imperfect, nation.

We celebrate America, for we live in the most successful large-scale social experiment in world history. I appreciate and revere this remarkable conjunction of courage, intelligence, and luck. We’ve won the lottery of life.

Each Independence Day Ramona and I listen to a Declaration of Independence reading on NPR’s web site. On Independence Eve we included our friends in the experience. Jefferson’s document shared 1776 with other significant events. Adam Smith published the Wealth of Nations and Phi Beta Kappa was established. It is by design that FREE’s phone numbers all end with 1776.

However, were I to nominate a secular document suggesting evidence of divine intervention it would be our Constitution of 1789. Our Founders knew that governments normally transfer wealth from the poor, weak, and unorganized to the wealthy and powerful. They designed institutions to make such transference difficult. Checks on power such as the Bill of Rights, the Presidential veto, and judicial review of legislative acts raise the burdens of transferring wealth and preferential opportunities. Our civil and economic liberties diminish with the erosion of these institutional safeguards.

The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion. Washington’s 1790 letter to Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, illustrates the importance of toleration to our founders. September 14, 2001, a national day of prayer and remembrance for the victims of 9/11, honored this tradition. An imam who quoted verses from the Koran, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, an African-American Methodist minister, Billy Graham, and a rabbi joined the president in a Protestant setting. This inclusiveness was not mere political correctness. It demonstrated that we respect our heritage of religious diversity.

The Fifth Amendment strongly implies that America’s Founders understood the inextricable connection of economic liberties and civil liberties. In Jefferson’s first inaugural address he stated, “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government.” The Fifth Amendment secures our property rights. A portion reads, “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” Traditionally this restricted eminent domain powers to explicitly public enterprises such as highways or railroads.

While I am not a legal scholar (and surely have no influence on judges), I see the recent Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London as undermining the protections of the Fifth Amendment. The court ruled that the government can remove citizens from their homes solely for the purpose of economic development. A business park will replace Susette Kelo’s home and her entire neighborhood. The city of New London colluded with the developer, hoping for an improved neighborhood and increases in tax revenue.

In her dissent, Justice O’Conner wrote, “Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party.... As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more.” Lower- and middle-class folks typically can’t afford the legal battles required to keep their homes. Through a mutually beneficial relationship, the government and the wealthy exploit them. The Kelo ruling gives local politicians license to expand this activity.

Ignoring the link between civil and economic liberties invites peril. James Madison warned, “A man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”

I am confident in the promise of America’s ideals. Exposing tomorrow’s leaders to the reasoning of America’s Founders coupled with an understanding of economics is paramount. Armed with this knowledge, people ultimately reach responsible positions on matters of public policy. These beliefs motivate our work. And we celebrate this success.