As a rule, state-focused policy groups that belong to State Policy Network have a heavy emphasis on educating the public and lawmakers and offering alternative visions of where policy can go.

The Goldwater Institute does that too, but it has a dimension that most such groups lack: a group of lawyers who are in the business of expanding the freedom of individuals, not restricting it.

Here's how the institute describes the legal component of its mission:

"The Goldwater Institute is in the business of developing and promoting good ideas. But sometimes you need more than good ideas. Sometimes you need a good lawyer. The mission of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation is to protect the rights that Americans recognize as fundamental. The center is the first associated with a policy organization to exclusively litigate state issues, recognizing that in many instances state constitutions offer the strongest protections of individual liberty."