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2020 | Winter Issue

A Conflict Of Visions

Is America as irrevocably divided as it seems?

There’s something on which we cannot compromise: The emblematic ideals of the Enlightenment that all men are created equal, government exists to protect our inherent and individual natural rights, and we should be ruled by reason.

— Steven D. Anderson, President & CEO of Pacific Legal Foundation

what’s inside

America Needs to Remember Enlightenment Ideals Now More than Ever

Steven D. Anderson

Thumbing through my third-grade son’s school materials for a lesson on voting and democracy, I was struck by something that years, maybe even months, earlier would have shocked me, but now seems unfortunately a sign of the times. This booklet—remember, for elementary school students—wasn’t trying to evoke good feelings about how voting gives every American the right to direct how their government works. Instead, the booklet focused almost entirely on what populations didn’t initially have the vote in America. (And, strangely, it threw in a section on César Chávez’ unionization of farm workers.)

Property Damage Is a Blight on Our Sacred Right to Protest

James S. Burling

“Everybody watched it burn to ashes,” said Anmol Khindri. Khindri, a Kenosha, Wisconsin, resident, watched helplessly as his family business burned down. Rioters destroyed the business, a car dealership. “Nobody did nothing about it—nothing.”

Union Agitators Wouldn’t Leave His Property. Now the Supreme Court Will Hear His Case.

Joshua P. Thompson

Mike Fahner has farming in his blood. He was born to a potato farming family in Northern California, and in the late 1990s he founded Cedar Point Nursery—a strawberry plant farm—in Butte Valley, California. Today, Cedar Point Nursery thrives as one of the country’s biggest strawberry nurseries.

Evaluating The 1619 Project: A Conversation with Phil Magness

Scott Barton

In recent years, Americans are paying renewed attention and having new discussions on race, racism, and discrimination.

A Tale of Two Cities

Jaclyn Boudreau

Our clients never asked the elites to come save them, but the elites came anyway. From coast to coast, minorities’ unwelcome champions have been working hard to bake racial discrimination back into the law, ironically, in the name of equality.

The Courts Are a Haven from Political Fights

Anastasia Boden

On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in the case of Loving v. Virginia, which ruled unanimously that state laws prohibiting interracial marriage violated the promise of equal protection before the law.
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Stories of liberty and justice

Sword&Scales is a quarterly magazine with in-depth stories about liberty, equality, and justice. Published by Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm with a winning record at the Supreme Court, Sword&Scales features narratives from history, courtroom showdowns, and the real experiences of people fighting for their rights.

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