Private property rights, enshrined in law and protected by the courts, are literally the bedrock of American free enterprise. The smallest property owner enjoys the same rights before the law as the most powerful corporation. To the extent government fails to secure our property rights, liberty is diminished and the rule of the jungle pushes out the rule of law. It is our devotion to private property rights and their enshrinement in the law that makes us the world leader in innovation and invention – unlike those chaotic, impoverished parts of the world where that devotion doesn’t take root.

CASE members understand the vital necessity of nurturing deep public adherence to strong private property rights. As more young Americans, disillusioned by the absence of opportunity in the Obama economy, lend a listening ear to the empty promises of “democratic socialism,” it is more vital than ever for CASE to make the moral case for private property rights and free enterprise as the broadest road on which we can pursue happiness and earned success. CASE members are resolved to push back against progressive caricatures of property rights by educating Americans about their true nature, which more than simply owns land – it is possession of one’s ideas, beliefs, talents and freedom.  In the comparison to this true understanding of private property rights – as they were understood by the Founders – socialist platitudes become stale.