Center for the Common Interest

The Center for the Common Interest (CCI) is a center founded in 2007 and sponsored by the 501(c)(3) Liberty and Privacy Network, a friend of the Liberty Coalition (www.libertycoalition.net/).

CCI’s Mission is to educate decision makers, the public and the media about policies that are the result of special interest activism, and how alternative policies would facilitate better the interests of the majority of persons, leading to more opportunities, peace and prosperity. We work with nonprofits, corporations and individuals to raise awareness of the fallacies of the arguments of powerful interests that do not have the General Welfare in mind. We publish articles, news releases, letters to the editor; meet with decision makers and affiliated groups, and host events.

We trace our philosophy to the General Welfare Clause of the United States Constitution, which, in conjunction with the Enumerated Powers Clause, makes clear the limits of government in granting favors to special advocates, to wit:

“With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” - James Madison, Letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831 _Madison_ 1865, IV, pages 171-172

“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” - Thomas Jefferson