Libertas Institute

This article is about the American think tank. For the defunct Irish organization, see Libertas Institute (Ireland). For other uses, see Libertas (disambiguation).

Libertas Institute

Libertas Institute logo
Type	Public policy think tank
Founded	December 11, 2011
Founder(s)	Connor Boyack
Headquarters	Utah
Focus(es)	Government, Politics
Motto	Advancing the cause of liberty in Utah
Website	LibertasUtah.org

Libertas Institute is a liberty-oriented public policy think tank located in Utah which focuses on state and local issues.^[1]

The Institute describes its vision as follows:

Libertas Institute envisions a day when individuals, families, and communities throughout Utah champion the principles of liberty and the voluntary creation of a moral society by persuasion and example to improve our great state. That day will come, we believe, when individual liberty is stubbornly secured, private property is rigidly respected, and a market free from regulatory burdens and government interventions flourishes within Utah.

The Institute was founded in 2011 by Connor Boyack, who serves as its president.^[2] John Pestana serves as its Chairman of the Board.^[3]

Policy Centers

Libertas Institute’s activities fall into four categories, each of which finds its focus in a Center organized to specialize in and advocate for a specific set of policies.

Center for Individual Liberty

Libertas exists to advance the cause of liberty in Utah, and its first center is primary to that mission. The Center for Individual Liberty works on policies in the following areas of focus:^[4]

• Uphold personal responsibility as the necessary precedent to individual liberty.
• Oppose all government policies not based upon a legitimately delegated power possessed by the individuals who comprise Utah’s government.
• Promote voluntary association as the moral means of accomplishing important societal goals.
• Encourage families to cultivate attitudes and actions of self-reliance to resist the temptations of the welfare/nanny state.

Center for Private Property

Libertas Institute opposes property taxes as a violation of an individual's right to own and manage property, arguing that property taxes is a form of paying rent to the government which asserts itself as the primary owner of all property within its jurisdiction. This Center works on policies in the following areas of focus:^[5]

• Oppose all uses of eminent domain, which is nothing more than legalized theft.
• Seek the reduction and elimination of all property taxes.
• Advocate the prohibition of searches and seizures not conducted with judicial oversight, including administrative subpoenas.
• Encourage the privatization of all property not required for government operation, including parks and wild lands.
• Support the ability of business owners to employ or engage in commerce with any consenting adult, regardless of immigration status.
• Work towards abolition of all business licensure such that property owners can offer their goods and services to other consenting adults without a permission slip from the government.
• Encourage eliminating the income tax and replacing it with user fees.

Center for Free Enterprise

Arguing that many of those who champion the "free market" simultaneously support policies which violate it, Libertas Institute advocates for changes which move Utah's economy towards a true free market system. The Center for Free Enterprise works on policies in the following areas of focus:^[6]

• Support the repeal of all business licensure laws.
• Oppose the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and similar offices and programs which use taxpayer dollars to alter economic behavior and pick winners and losers in the marketplace.
• Advocate for a return to a sound money system and legalize competing currencies.
• Dismantle the welfare state and advocate personal responsibility and private charity.
• Promote entrepreneurialism and business development by ensuring fair competition, such as opposing government-owned businesses such as the Utah Transit Authority, recreation centers, convention enters, etc., which unfairly compete with private alternatives.

Center for Tenth Amendment Studies

The other three Centers each focus on a principle of good government: individual liberty, private property, and free enterprise. The Center for Tenth Amendment Studies is distinct from the others, in that its focus is external, rather than internal. Whereas the federal government usurps the powers which reside with the state of Utah or its people, then Utahns must oppose those usurpations in favor of self ownership or state management. The Center for Tenth Amendment Studies works on policies in the following areas of focus:^[7]

• Encourage bold resistance of all unconstitutional usurpations of authority by the national government through any and all available means.
• Raise awareness of the Constitution’s “original intent” and the context surrounding the various conventions and debates as the document was being drafted and advocated.
• Foster a recognition by Utahns that, as Thomas Jefferson said, “Whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
• Highlight policies, projects, and other causes which are worthy of support in working towards limiting the power of the national government.
• Call out legislation, executive orders, bureaucratic regulations and other activities at the federal level which violate the Constitution.
• Fight for the reservation of power not only by the state of Utah, but more importantly the people themselves.
• Propose methods of fighting back against the federal government in areas where it has illegitimately assumed authority.

References