The final member of the Big Three is
the Liberty Fund. The late Indianapolis industrialist Pierre F.
Goodrich founded Liberty Fund in 1960 to pursue his personal vision
of "the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals." Mr. Goodrich was a strong believer in the libertarian philosophy
and, in particular, was concerned that "institutional arrangements
that concentrate political and economic power" would "invariably
erode liberty and moral values." According to their literature,
Liberty Fund seeks to encourage the fragmentation and decentralization
of power and "is intellectually and uncompromisingly committed
to liberty."
As of 1996, Liberty Fund had over $202
million in assets. Liberty Fund makes grants directly to conservative/libertarian
organizations such as the Cato Institute, the Center for Study
of Federalism, and the Political Economy Research Center. In 1997,
the Fund reported spending $1.6 million (over 20% of its total
expenses for the year) bankrolling meetings and seminars, including
Liberty Fund's colloquia for federal judges. Between 1992 and
1998, 53 federal judges reported 100 Liberty Fund sponsored travel
gifts. Federal judges have reported attending conferences around
the nation on such topics as, "Liberty and the Separation of Powers,"
"Freedom and Federalism," "Law, Liberty and Responsible Individuals,"
and "Liberty and the Meaning of Rights." Liberty Fund not only
hosts its own seminars for judges, they also fund those of philosophically
aligned groups. In fact, Liberty Fund has co-sponsored seminars
with both FREE and the LEC.
Perhaps
the most salient fact about Liberty Fund sponsored seminars is
the ideological make-up of the attending judges. While Republican-appointed
judges disproportionately attend all of the Big Three programs,
this trend is extreme in the case of the Liberty Fund. Our research
revealed that between 1992 and 2004 Republican-appointed judges took a remarkable 97%
of the reported Liberty Fund trips 1 -in- 28 Judges is a democratic appointee, compared with 69% for the
Big Three as a whole. Over the same period, Republican appointees
made up approximately 60% of the active federal judiciary.
Correction to Nothing For FREE Report
