MARINA DEL REY, CA -- U.S. District Judge Michael Moore today violated Elian Gonzalez's rights when he dismissed a lawsuit aimed at keeping the 6-year-old boy in the United States, said the chairman of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.
     "Every individual, including Elian Gonzalez, has the inalienable right to political freedom," said Peter Schwartz. "His father has no right to demand that the boy live in a slave state. Even assuming that the father is expressing his real views and not those of his slavemaster, Fidel Castro, no parent has the right to drag his child from freedom into the prison of totalitarianism. And that is what Cuba is -- one vast jail cell, with no recognition of individual rights."
     "America was founded on the principle of every man's right to be free from state tyranny. It would be a terrible treason to that principle -- and an unforgivable injustice to Elian Gonzalez -- if our government were to ship this 6-year-old boy back to a dictatorship."
 
     Ayn Rand Institute chairman of the board of directors Peter Schwartz is available for interviews.