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Dear Friend,
What we witnessed in 2025 was not “politics as usual.”
It was one of the most consequential turning points for constitutional liberty in modern American history—a year that signaled a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and “we the people.”
Throughout the year, the federal government expanded its use of executive power, mass surveillance, military force, censorship, and prosecutorial overreach in ways that steadily eroded the constitutional safeguards meant to protect our freedoms.
The Rutherford Institute’s 2025 Annual Report documents the dramatic escalation in government overreach and the work we undertook to push back against these abuses.
As the Report notes:
“From federalized troops to AI-driven surveillance, from blacklisting law firms to punishing dissent, the government has steadily abandoned the constitutional restraints meant to keep its power in check.”
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Against this backdrop, The Rutherford Institute worked tirelessly to defend Americans whose rights were threatened or violated. In 2025, our efforts focused on:
- Free Speech & Political Dissent: Challenging speech-based detentions of student activists, resisting government pressure on Big Tech to censor viewpoints, and defending law firms targeted for their advocacy.
- Executive Overreach: Opposing the federalization of the National Guard, the rise of a standing domestic army, and the misuse of emergency powers to bypass constitutional limits.
- Mass Surveillance: Exposing AI-driven predictive policing, biometric tracking, DNA collection, digital blacklists, financial deplatforming, and thought-control programs that punish ideology rather than conduct.
- Militarized Policing & the Prison State: Defending civilians caught in raids and excessive force, opposing the administration’s $170 billion prison expansion and “Alligator Alcatraz,” and protecting those targeted for filming police.
- Parental Rights & Religious Freedom: Defending families and churches subjected to government interference, surveillance, and retaliation.
- Government Accountability: Challenging secrecy doctrines, misconduct coverups, and mental-health pretexts used to sideline dissenters.
Throughout 2025, we confronted a government increasingly unwilling to restrain its own power. And yet, our mission remains the same: to make the government play by the rules of the Constitution.
I invite you to read the full report and see the work you make possible:
Read the 2025 Annual Report
Thank you for standing with us during a year when liberty needed defenders more than ever.
The Constitution cannot defend itself. But together, we can.
 With gratitude,
John W. Whitehead
Constitutional Attorney
President, The Rutherford Institute
P.S. The Rutherford Institute—nonpartisan, apolitical and committed to the principles enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights—is working every day to push back against the government’s heavy-handed tyranny on almost every front. We could not do this work without you.
As we move deeper into our $250,000 Year-End Matching Gift Campaign, every dollar you give between now and December 31 will double your impact in defending freedom and the rule of law.
We are especially in need of monthly donors who can commit to spreading their support throughout the year. Whether you choose to give $10, $25, $100, or more each month—or make a one-time tax-deductible gift—your support goes directly toward our critical legal and educational work.
To make a tax-deductible donation:
- visit us online at www.rutherford.org or at PayPal,
- call in your donation to 800-225-1791,
- or mail your gift to: The Rutherford Institute, PO Box 7482, Charlottesville, VA 22906.
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To donate via PayPal, please click below:
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