Christina Sandefur is the executive vice president at the Goldwater Institute. She develops policies and litigates cases advancing healthcare freedom, free enterprise, private property rights, free speech and taxpayer rights.
Sandefur is a co-drafter of the Right to Try initiative, now federal law, which protects terminally ill patients’ right to try safe investigational treatments that have been prescribed by their physician but are not yet FDA-approved. She has won important victories for property rights in Arizona and works nationally to promote the Institute’s Private Property Rights Protection Act, a state-level reform that requires government to pay owners when regulations destroy property rights and reduce property values.
Sandefur is the co-author of the book "Cornerstone of Liberty: Private Property Rights in 21st-Century America" (2016). She is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs, has provided expert legal testimony to various legislative committees and is a frequent speaker at conferences. She is the recipient of the 2018 Buckley Award in recognition of her leadership in the freedom movement, and she is an advisory board member of the Network of enlightened Women. Sandefur serves on the boards of the Phoenix Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the Paragon Health Institute and is a member of the executive committee for the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project: FDA & Health, as well as the Arizona State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Sandefur is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Law and Hillsdale College.