Preserving Freedom Through Education

The Freedom Index is an educational resource published by The New American, as part of the nationwide programs of The John Birch Society. Its purpose is to create an informed electorate on how members of Congress and state legislators are voting. It is intended to inform the American people, candidates, and elected officials about the rights and freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The Freedom Index and Scorecards can be viewed, downloaded, and printed for every federal and state lawmaker in all 50 states. They display how members of Congress and state legislators voted on certain key issues. Votes are selected in terms of their constitutional implications and cost to the taxpayers. The vote descriptions summarize the votes and explain why they are constitutional or not. They function as mini-lessons on the U.S. Constitution. In addition, they help to promote discussion about constitutional government.

The U.S. Constitution and America’s Founding Principles 

The Freedom Index is distinguished by its staunch focus on the U.S. Constitution. Ensuring that members of Congress and state legislators are faithful to the U.S. Constitution is essential because the Constitution was established to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Article VI of the Constitution requires every state and federal law to be made “in Pursuance” of the Constitution and that all legislators “be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”  

The Freedom Index is nonpartisan. It is not meant to advance any candidate or political party. It reveals voting records without endorsing or opposing candidates. It is designed so that citizens can exhort or admonish Republicans, Democrats, independents, or third-party members when it comes to fidelity to the U.S. Constitution.

Constitutional Methodology

Unlike those of other so-called conservative groups, our Congressional Scorecards and state Legislative Scorecards give you the ability to hold your lawmakers accountable by showing whether they adhere to the principles of the Constitution. While the Scorecards rate federal and state legislators in every state, they do so with the understanding that each lawmaker is duty-bound by oath to uphold the Constitution. Every legislative act is ultimately not only constitutional or unconstitutional, but pro-liberty or anti-liberty. There are no exceptions. This is the “gold standard” for selecting and scoring votes.

The Freedom Index acknowledges that the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights was written to secure our “unalienable Rights.” It honors and respects the fact that the Constitution is rooted in the universal and timeless claims of the Declaration of Independence. In other words, we affirm that the Constitution tells us how we should govern ourselves and the Declaration tells us why. The former provides the structure of American government, and the latter provides its final cause:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

We do not attempt to avoid social and cultural topics, such as abortion, marriage, or gender, as if the “supreme Law of the Land” has nothing to do with them. The Bill of Rights is not irrelevant. The Constitution’s Framers did not write a “living Constitution,” but one that conforms to the fixed and absolute “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The Constitution must always be read in the spirit of the Declaration, for the Constitution is formally attached to the Declaration through the Attestation Clause, the last words of Article VII of the Constitution. The Declaration has never been disannulled, nor can the Constitution be properly understood apart from the principles of the Declaration. To do otherwise would be to repudiate America’s Founding.

The Freedom Index rejects efforts to “misconstrue or abuse” the U.S. Constitution and its limitations on government power. This includes the Progressive-Era Amendments, as well as other attempts to amend or rewrite the Constitution that are “anti-constitutional” in their substance or intent, or pose a serious threat by their potential consequence.