August 2004

Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby Wins IJ’s Thomas Paine Award

By John E. Kramer

The Institute for Justice presented Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby with IJ’s Thomas Paine Award. The Thomas Paine Award is presented to journalists who dedicate their work to the preservation and championing of individual liberty. Past recipients have included syndicated columnist George F. Will, host of ABC’s 20/20 John Stossel and Wall Street Journal editorial writer John Fund.

In receiving the award, Jacoby praised the work of the Institute for Justice, saying, “IJ takes on entrenched and powerful interests on behalf of underdogs whose only offense is a determination to stand up for their own freedom.” He concluded, “Liberty is not—or should not be—an end in itself. The Framers of the Constitution spoke not of securing liberty to themselves and their descendants, but of securing the blessings of liberty. And perhaps the greatest of those blessings is the one that the Institute stands for: Justice.”

John Kramer is IJ’s vice president for communications.