CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Rutherford Institute has released its 2025 Annual Report, documenting what constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead describes as “one of the most consequential years for constitutional liberty in modern American history.” The Report highlights the Institute’s nationwide legal advocacy and public education efforts to counter the federal government’s increasingly aggressive use of executive power, mass surveillance, censorship, military force, and prosecutorial overreach.
“What we witnessed in 2025 was a dramatic turning point in the relationship between the government and ‘we the people,’” said Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “From federalized troops to AI-driven surveillance, from blacklisting law firms to punishing dissent, the government has steadily abandoned the constitutional restraints meant to keep its power in check. The Constitution cannot defend itself. That responsibility falls to the people—and to organizations willing to challenge the government’s abuses in court, in Congress, and in the public square.”
The Annual Report details The Rutherford Institute’s key work in 2025, including:
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- Defending Free Speech and Political Dissent: Challenging speech-based detentions of student activists, resisting government pressure on Big Tech to censor disfavored viewpoints, defending law firms targeted for representing unpopular clients, and pushing back against retaliation against whistleblowers.
- Challenging Executive Overreach: Opposing federalization of the National Guard, the emergence of a standing domestic army, misuse of emergency powers, and efforts to erode birthright citizenship.
- Confronting Mass Surveillance Technologies Used To Punish and Discourage Dissent: Exposing AI-driven predictive policing, biometric tracking, DNA collection, financial deplatforming, digital blacklists, geofence warrants, and behavioral-scoring systems which penalize thought and association in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.
- Pushing Back Against Militarized Policing and the Prison State: Defending civilians caught in militarized police actions, opposing the administration’s $170 billion incarceration expansion and “Alligator Alcatraz” megaprison, and arguing cases involving wrongful raids, excessive force, and retaliation against citizens filming police.
- Protecting Parental Rights and Religious Freedom: Defending religious expression in schools and public spaces, safeguarding churches from surveillance and crackdowns, and protecting parental authority over education and medical care.
- Demanding Government Accountability: Opposing efforts to shield officials from misconduct, expand secrecy doctrines, mislabel citizens as “extremists,” and use mental-health pretexts to detain dissidents, as well as defending servicemembers denied access to justice.
The full 2025 Annual Report includes case highlights, investigative reports, and TRI’s priorities for 2026.
2025 Annual Report: Protecting Liberty in a Year of Unchecked Government Power
Article posted with permission from John Whitehead
