The Pursuit

by Christina Sandefur
May 31, 2018

I’m excited to announce a new project of the Cato Institute, The Pursuit, a podcast about government action and individual liberty. I joined host Tess Terrible for the first and final episodes of 6-part series to talk about the importance of property rights.

The introductory episode, just released today, discusses our Founders’ vision of property rights as the foundation of all other rights, the Cornerstone of Liberty. I explain that every right in the Constitution is at its core a property right. It’s impossible to imagine freedom of the press or religion for people who are prohibited from owning printing presses or churches. America’s Founders understood this and referred to private property in the Constitution more than any other right.

Sadly, the present-day conception of property rights has deviated substantially from our Founders’ vision. Also in today’s episode, Cato Institute’s Trevor Burrus illustrates how government abuses its powers of eminent domain and civil asset forfeiture to subject our property rights to arbitrary government seizure.

This is just a taste of what’s to come in future episodes. I hope you’ll tune in!

You can subscribe to The Pursuit on iTunes here.

Christina Sandefur is Executive Vice President of the Goldwater Institute.