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Dear Friend,
Martin Luther King Jr. was not a safe or comfortable figure.
He was arrested. He broke unjust laws. He called for civil disobedience. He condemned racism, extreme materialism, and militarism, and he urged Americans to rise up against a government that prioritized war and profit over human dignity.
Most dangerously of all, King insisted that people have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
Nearly sixty years after King railed against the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism,” endless wars continue. Profit is still being placed above principle. And entire communities are still subjected to policing, punishment, and surveillance with little regard for justice or the rule of law.
Clearly, America hasn’t learned a thing.
Yet as King reminds us, there comes a time when law and order stand in direct opposition to justice.
Legality and morality are not the same. History is filled with acts that were perfectly legal—and profoundly unjust.
The real question is not whether a government’s actions are lawful, but whether they are morally right.
For more than four decades, The Rutherford Institute has sought to give practical meaning to the principles King articulated—challenging unjust laws, defending those targeted by government overreach, and insisting that constitutional rights apply to everyone, not just the favored or the powerful.
King dared to imagine a nation united not by fear or force, but by justice, morality, love and peace.
He did not live to see that dream fulfilled.
But the dream lives on.
Thank you for standing with us in the pursuit of a more just and free America.
For freedom,
John W. Whitehead
President
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