Dear Friend,

It’s been over 200 years since James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution—as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, and what do we have to show for it?

Nothing good.

We can pretend that the Constitution, which was written to hold the government accountable, is still our governing document, but the reality of life in the American police state tells a different story.

Here is what the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, really stands for today:

• First Amendment: You can be persecuted for criticizing the government; prosecuted for reporting on government wrongdoing; fined and jailed for exercising your religious beliefs; tear-gassed, beaten and arrested for protesting in public; and stymied in your efforts to hold the government accountable to the rule of law.
• Second Amendment: Owning a gun can get you put on a government watch list. 
• Third Amendment: Militarized police now serve as a standing army on American soil.
• Fourth Amendment: Has been all but eviscerated by an unwarranted expansion of police powers, the outsourcing of otherwise illegal activities to private contractors, asset forfeiture schemes, and technological advances that allow the government to spy on Americans’ activities, movements and communications. 
• The Fifth and Sixth Amendments: If the government can arbitrarily freeze, seize or lay claim to your property (money, land or possessions) under government asset forfeiture schemes, you have no true rights.
• Seventh Amendment: Juries ignorant of the Constitution provide little protection against injustice. 
• Eighth Amendment: The government’s bar for “cruel and unusual” punishment slips lower every year. 
• Ninth Amendment: The power to govern no longer flows upward from the people. 
• Tenth Amendment: A system of government in which power is divided among local, state and national entities has long since been rendered moot by the centralized Washington, DC, power elite.

Clearly, the government does whatever it wants, with no thought for our freedoms.

The Rutherford Institute is working hard to make the government play by the rules of the Constitution, but we can’t do it alone. Your support keeps us in the courtroom, in front of the legislatures, and on the front lines of the fight for freedom.
 
Especially now, with so much hanging in the balance across the nation, it’s vital that The Rutherford Institute remain on the front lines of the fight for freedom in America. Understanding what we’re up against, some donors have joined together to issue a special, year-end matching gift challenge of $100,000. 
 
If you're able to donate before December 31, your donations can go twice as far to help us meeting this year’s special, year-end matching gift challenge.

Together, we WILL make America free again.

For freedom,

John W. Whitehead
President

P.S. Your tax-deductible donations make it possible for The Rutherford Institute—nonpartisan, apolitical and committed to the principles enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights—to work to reshape the government from the bottom up into one that respects freedom, recognizes our worth as human beings, resists corruption, and plays by the rules of the Constitution.

To make a tax-deductible donation to The Rutherford Institute, click the link below, visit us online at www.rutherford.org, donate using PayPal, call in your donation to 800-225-1791, or mail your donation to our headquarters at PO Box 7482, Charlottesville, VA 22906. 

All tax-deductible donations—including one-time gifts, monthly pledges and stock donations—made between now and December 31 will count towards this year’s matching gift challenge.

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