# [ ](/free-society) Summer 2025 Vol. 2, No. 2 ![Free Society - Desk in a Field](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/public/2025-06/fs-cover-vol2no2.jpg?itok=th_R5LF1) Creating free, open, and civil societies founded on libertarian principles. ### [Cato in the News](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/cato-news-summer-2025) Noteworthy op-eds, TV appearances, and media highlights. ### [Cato Quarterly](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/cato-quarterly) Events, publications, and studies. ![](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2024-03/peter-goettler-portrait.png?itok=5uvrGnxs) ## [ A Letter from the President, Peter Goettler ](/free-society/summer-2025/letter-president-peter-goettler) Above everything else, we have to be dedicated to this commitment: giving future generations a country as free as the one given to us. It’s simply the moral responsibility of our lives. [Read the Letter](/free-society/summer-2025/letter-president-peter-goettler) #### Features [![Free Society - Stack of Books (List Image)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/free-society-stack-of-books-Cropped%20copy.jpg?itok=-Z7Eepzj)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/federal-failure-parental-freedom-story-movement) Free Society ### [From Federal Failure to Parental Freedom: The Story of a Movement](/free-society/summer-2025/federal-failure-parental-freedom-story-movement) By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) This is what Cato has long been fighting for: an education system that enables innovative options to be born and taken to scale because funding follows kids to schools their families choose, not only to public schools to which children are assigned based on their home addresses. [![Free Society - Once and Future Congress](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/once-and-future-hero%20copy.jpg?itok=lsWIojpe)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/once-future-congress) Free Society ### [The Once and Future Congress](/free-society/summer-2025/once-future-congress) By [John Samples](https://www.cato.org/people/john-samples) As executive authority expands to fill the void left by Congress’s self-imposed decline, the balance of powers that the Constitution was designed to foster has unraveled. But a congressional renaissance is possible—if lawmakers are willing to reclaim their proper role in the constitutional order. #### In This Issue [![Free Society - The Lost Liberalism (List Image)](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/Free%20Society%20-%20America%20First%20copy.jpg?itok=aiAazsKk)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/lost-liberalism-america-first) Free Society ### [The Lost Liberalism of America First](/free-society/summer-2025/lost-liberalism-america-first) By [Brandan P. Buck](https://www.cato.org/people/brandan-p-buck) Yet beneath the modern political fervor and negative historical interpretations, the core of America First rooted its message in a liberal tradition. [![Free Society - Freedom to Trade Header Graphic](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/Free%20Society%20-%20Freedom%20to%20Trade%20Image.jpg?itok=ksvb7aio)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/freedom-trade-moral-case-against-protectionism) Free Society ### [Freedom to Trade: The Moral Case Against Protectionism](/free-society/summer-2025/freedom-trade-moral-case-against-protectionism) By [James A. Dorn](https://www.cato.org/people/james-dorn) Free trade enriches us and enables human flourishing, but it is also a moral imperative essential to a just society. [![Free Society - Ryan Bourne and Patrick Collison](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/Ryan%20Bourne%20and%20Patrick%20Collison.jpg?itok=LHTNcRBO)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/stripe-cofounder-patrick-collison-innovation-human-agency-governments) Free Society ### [Stripe Cofounder Patrick Collison on Innovation, Human Agency, and the Government’s Systemic Compulsion to Spend](/free-society/summer-2025/stripe-cofounder-patrick-collison-innovation-human-agency-governments) By [Ryan Bourne](https://www.cato.org/people/ryan-bourne) The confluence of circumstances that has been painstakingly created here in America in a hair’s breadth under a quarter of a millennium is just astonishing, and a beacon for people like me growing up in rural Ireland. [![Victor Owen Schwartz](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/victor-owen-schwartz.png?itok=XO8SVVLN)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/how-one-mans-passion-french-wine-sparked-challenge-trumps-emergency) Free Society ### [How One Man’s Passion for French Wine Sparked a Challenge to Trump’s “Emergency” Tariffs](/free-society/summer-2025/how-one-mans-passion-french-wine-sparked-challenge-trumps-emergency) By [Paul Best](https://www.cato.org/people/paul-best) For nearly four decades, Victor Owen Schwartz has scoured the globe for the most authentic wine, spirits, and sake that he could find to bring back to the United States. His business model faced an existential threat from President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, but with help from Cato’s Ilya Somin, he took the administration to court. [![Free Society: Trace Mitchell](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/2025-04-24-Trace%20Mitchell-Free%20Society%20Magazine--28%20copy.jpg?itok=c_XCM7WL)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/capitol-connections-changing-congress-staff) Free Society ### [Capitol Connections: Changing Congress from the Staff Up](/free-society/summer-2025/capitol-connections-changing-congress-staff) By [Josh Hardman](https://www.cato.org/people/josh-hardman) Trace Mitchell participated in the Cato Institute’s Congressional Fellowship Program. The experience helped him and hundreds of other staffers reach across the aisle. [![Free Society - David Boaz at Cato 40](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/boaz-40.png?itok=vEYxF8BG)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/seeds-freedom-david-boazs-enduring-legacy) Free Society ### [Seeds of Freedom: David Boaz’s Enduring Legacy](/free-society/summer-2025/seeds-freedom-david-boazs-enduring-legacy) By Brian Mullis David Boaz made liberty his life’s mission—and with a transformational legacy gift to the Cato Institute, he is making it possible for future generations to do the same. [![Last Word - Chelsea Follet Portrait](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-06/cheslea.jpg?itok=2kI1vdRv)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/last-word-kids-need-optimism-not-doom-degrowth) Free Society ### [Last Word: The Kids Need Optimism, Not Doom and Degrowth](/free-society/summer-2025/last-word-kids-need-optimism-not-doom-degrowth) By [Chelsea Follett](https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett) Not only is the embrace of degrowth misguided, but research suggests that this doomsday mindset is causing widespread anxiety in young people. [![letters-in-black-and-white.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2023-05/letters-in-black-and-white.jpg?itok=QTTul39B)](https://www.cato.org/free-society/summer-2025/letter-editor-mothers-gratitude) Free Society ### [Letter to the Editor: A Mother’s Gratitude](/free-society/summer-2025/letter-editor-mothers-gratitude) *Free Society* welcomes feedback from our readers. If you would like to share your thoughts on the issues we cover, email us at [freesociety@​cato.​org](mailto:freesociety@cato.org) with your submission, name, and contact information. ### Never miss a beat. [ ](/free-society) Sign up for our email newsletter now to get the latest digital *Free Society* issues delivered straight to your inbox. [text](#) “ All civil virtue and happiness, every moral excellency, all politeness, all good arts and sciences, are produced by liberty. ” Cato’s Letter, no. 63 1723 John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon