Regional Seminar: Individual Liberty

America’s Founders believed that liberty—rooted in the inherent freedom of the individual—must be the foundation of the nation and must precede government itself. Drawing on the principles of John Locke, they built a system designed to secure natural rights and protect essential freedoms from encroachment by any authority, ultimately enshrining these protections in the Constitution and the First Amendment. Our program will highlight why free expression, religious liberty, a free press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government are not secondary concerns but the core safeguards of a free society. Without these first principles, all other liberties are at risk.