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Louisville Food Trucks Sue to End City’s Corrupt Bargain with Restaurant Lobby

June 28, 2017

Victory for School Choice in Georgia

June 26, 2017

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 15 consecutive 4-star ratings

Louisville Food Trucks Sue to End City’s Corrupt Bargain with Restaurant Lobby

Louisville, Ky.—Should Louisville fine and tow its food truck scene out of the city just to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from healthy competition? That is the question raised in a new federal lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky by two local food truck owners—Troy King of Pollo and…

In Major Win for School Choice, U.S. Supreme Court Vacates Colorado Supreme Court Decision, Sends Case Back for Further Review

Institute for Justice Represents Colorado Families in Doyle Case

Arlington, Va.—In a major and encouraging development for school choice nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court today vacated a 2015 judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court that had struck down Douglas County, Colorado’s Choice Scholarship Program for elementary and secondary students. The nation’s highest court remanded the case back to the state court, instructing it to…

Supreme Court Rules State Cannot Discriminate Against Religious Institutions When Doling Out Funds for Playground Equipment

Trinity Lutheran Also Raised Questions Regarding Bigoted & Notorious Blaine Amendments That Still May Be Addressed by High Court through the Institute for Justice’s Douglas County School Choice Case

Today’s narrow ruling leaves open further debate and legal challenges on state Blaine Amendments, including the Institute for Justice’s appeal of a Colorado school choice case in which the government discriminates against parents who want to select religious schools for their children. Attorneys from the Institute for Justice are the experts on the Blaine Amendments.…

Victory for School Choice in Georgia

Court Rejects Challenge to Georgia’s Popular Tax Credit Scholarship Program

Atlanta—In a major victory for students and parents in the Peach State, the Georgia Supreme Court today unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a frivolous constitutional challenge to Georgia’s thriving tax credit scholarship program. The Court ruled that the taxpayers who filed the lawsuit are not harmed by the program because it is funded by…

Illinois Overwhelmingly Approves Bill to Protect the Innocent from Civil Forfeiture

“No one should be denied justice simply because they cannot afford their day in court.”

Federal Government Sues “Pile of Cash”

An unfortunate mixup on an Amtrak train led to the bizarre spectacle of the federal government of the United States filing a lawsuit against “a pile of cash”—specifically, $17,900 that federal agents decided to seize. This bizarre maneuver is the usual mechanism by which law enforcement seizes property from people on the suspicion that it…

Wisconsin Edges Closer to Trimming Beauty Licensing

Last month, lawmakers in the lower house of Wisconsin Legislature started debating Assembly Bill 167, which would reduce onerous licensing requirements for barbers, cosmetologists and other beauty professionals. While the state Assembly is still working to advance the bill, the state Senate has moved ahead and passed its own template for reform. Senate Bills 108…

When the government gets in your way, have you ever stopped and asked why?

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Our Issues

School Choice

School choice is simply the idea that all parents, regardless of means, should enjoy the freedom to choose what schools their children attend.
more on this issue »
Economic Liberty

The right to earn a living in the occupation of your choice without unnecessary government interference is at the heart of the American Dream.
more on this issue »
First Amendment

We seek to defend the free flow of information—information that is indispensable to our democratic form of government and to our free enterprise economy.
more on this issue »
Private Property

Respecting the right of private property is essential to a just and prosperous society. But government at all levels—local, state and federal—routinely infringe on these rights.
more on this issue »

Opternative

Opternative is a Chicago-based internet startup that offers consumers a simple promise: Get a new prescription for glasses or contacts from the comfort of your own home. In most states, Opternative’s technology allows doctors to provide faster and better service to more people—but not in South Carolina.

Ben Burris

IJ client Dr. Ben Burris is an Arkansas orthodontist who wants to offer low-cost teeth cleanings to people who cannot otherwise afford them. But it is illegal for him to perform basic dental services, even though he is a licensed dentist.

Dan Burgess

IJ client Dan Burgess drives for ridesharing companies uberX, Sidecar and Lyft and is fighting to defend his economic liberty.

Grace Granatelli

After obtaining her private certifications in canine massage therapy, Grace started volunteering with rescue agencies and adoption events to provide canine massage for ailing and neglected dogs. She later turned her volunteer hobby into a business, which she named Pawsitive Touch.

Bill Von Winkle

Ken Quran

Khalid (“Ken”) Quran moved to America in 1997, and now runs a convenience store in Greenville, N.C. But the government seized his entire bank account—more than $150,000—even though he was never charged with a crime.

Russ Caswell

Russ Caswell and his family have owned and operated the Motel Caswell in Tewksbury, Mass., for two generations. The Caswells nearly had their property taken from them by local and federal law enforcement officials through a process known as civil forfeiture.

Aicheria Bell

Aicheria Bell lives in Des Moines. She is passionate about natural hair care and has been braiding hair since she was three years old.

Susette Kelo

Josh Craven

Josh grew up in Pleasant Ridge and he cannot realistically afford to own a home anywhere else.

Michael Jensen

Michael Jensen would like Dr. Birchansky to perform his next needed eye surgery at the outpatient center next to Dr. Birchansky’s office because it is a safe, less costly, convenient, and familiar environment. Unfortunately Iowa’s CON law is denying him that choice.

Charlie Birnbaum

Charlie Birnbaum is fighting to keep his family home in Atlantic City, N.J., which has been in his family for 50 years. But New Jersey wants to take it for the benefit of a bankrupt casino.

Terry and Ria Platt

Soon after Terry and Ria’s car was seized, they found themselves lost in Arizona’s forfeiture maze.

Ocheesee Creamery

Mary Lou Wesselhoeft and her husband Paul Wesselhoeft own Ocheesee Creamery, a small creamery in the Florida Panhandle. Because of the all-natural dairy philosophy that Mary Lou follows, she added nothing to the creamery’s skim milk. But a state agency wants her to use a confusing and misleading label that labels the milk something it is not: “Non-Grade ‘A’ Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed.”

David Diaz

David Diaz, a custodian at a synagogue in the Bronx, lives with members of his family in an apartment near the Bronx Zoo. The NYPD raided the apartment in 2013, entering with guns drawn, and arrested all the adults present, but did not charge anyone.

Lyndon McLellan

Lyndon McLellan has spent more than a decade running L&M Convenience Mart in rural North Carolina. Then, without any warning, agents from the IRS seized his entire bank account, totaling more than $107,000.

Ted and Lauren Dzierzbicki

IJ clients Ted and Lauren Dzierzbicki wonder if the government can arbitrarily restrict the property rights of some individuals but not others.

Korver Ear Nose and Throat LLC

Tina Barnes

Tina was elected to the Charlestown City Council to represent the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood. If forced out by the city, Tina, her daughter and granddaughters will all be homeless.

Mildred Bryant

Mildred Bryant is 84 years old and living out her golden years in the home she’s owned for 46 years in Pagedale, Missouri. But she faces a real threat of tickets, fines, and imprisonment from the town.

Progressive Radiology

Dr. Mark Monteferrante wants to build a new, top-notch medical facility in Virginia. But under the commonwealth’s certificate of need (CON) program, he first has to persuade government officials that his facility would be “needed.”

Lara Allen

Lara Allen’s four children, all of whom are gifted and/or have special needs, need more than what the public schools can offer.

Jim and Cliff Courtney

Jim and Cliff Courtney have a plan to bring economic prosperity to their small community. Unfortunately, the state of Washington has sunk their plan with a law that requires them to obtain a certificate of “public convenience and necessity” from the state in order to pick up and drop off passengers.

Shelia Champion

Shelia Champion lives in Hazel Green, Alabama and operates a cemetery, The Good Earth Burial Ground.

Ushaben Chudasama

Ushaben used to thread part-time at the Threading Studio & Spa near New Orleans, often filling in for licensed estheticians when they were unable to work. But after state regulators ordered the business to terminate its unlicensed threaders, Ushaben is no longer permitted to thread in the studio.

Bob McGinnity

Bob and Michael do not know where they will go if they lose their homes. But they do know they have a right to stay and to keep what they have worked all their lives for.

Elmer Kilian

IJ client Elmer Kilian has been preparing taxes for the past 30 years on his dining room table. He fought and successfully defended his right to earn an honest living without getting permission from the IRS.

Mats Järlström

Steve Camburn

Steve is a model landlord who deeply cares about his tenants and their comfort and security. However, he is unwilling to allow the Borough to intrude into his tenants’ homes without their consent.

Christos and Markela Sourovelis

Chris and Markela Sourovelis worked their whole lives to build a home for their family. Officials in Philadelphia then tried to use civil forfeiture to take it all away, even though Chris and Markela did nothing wrong.

Wendy Robin

Wendy trained as a makeup artist in Hollywood and has over 20 years of experience working with celebrities. But in Nevada, teaching others how to apply makeup without a government-issued license can subject you to up to $2,000 in fines.

Abdikadir “Abdi” Abdisalan and Abdullahi Hassan

Abdi immigrated to the United States in the 1990s, after fleeing the civil war in his native Somalia. He is a longtime taxi driver who want to go into business for himself.

Dan Leger

Tour guides are storytellers, and the government can’t be in the business of deciding who is (or who is not) allowed to tell stories.

Robert and Rebecca McCaughtry

Under Red Wing, Minn.’s rental inspection ordinance, it is easier for the government to force its way into the homes of law-abiding citizens than it is to search the home of a suspected criminal. Robert and Rebecca joined a lawsuit to stop these unreasonable and intrusive inspections of their private residential properties.

Troy King

Teresa Quinones

Teresa Quinones, of Lawrenceville, Ga., is a mother of three young children. Her two oldest children, Audri and Christopher, attend Notre Dame Academy, thanks to Georgia’s Scholarship Tax-Credit Program.

Carl and Joy Gamble

Norwood, Ohio wanted to bulldoze Carl and Joy’s home of more than three decades to make way for a private developer.

Arlene Harjo

Arlene Harjo entered the world of civil forfeiture in April 2016, when her son, Tino, was arrested while driving her two-year-old Nissan Versa.

Robin Lamp

Robin Lamp is a single parent whose two daughters attend Christian academy in Georgia.

Bernardo Soriano

Bernardo has plans to grow his food truck business, but San Antonio’s 300-foot rule is making it very difficult for him to realize his goals.

Dina Galassini

Arizona wants to bar people from joining together to protest local ballot measures without first registering with the government.

Terry Dehko and Sandy Thomas

Terry Dehko and his family have owned and operated the Schott’s Market in Fraser, Mich., for 35 years. The Dehkos had $35,000 taken from them by federal law enforcement officials through a process known as civil forfeiture.

Markela Sourovelis

In May 2014, Philadelphia police showed up unannounced at Markela’s home and tried to seize the home through civil forfeiture because her son had been caught selling a small amount of drugs outside the home. After a year of uncertainty, the city agreed to stop seizing people’s homes without warning and forcing people to give up their constitutional rights and kick out family members. Even better—Markela’s son was allowed back home.

Next Chapter Winery

Cynthia Perry

IJ client Cynthia Perry wants to send her daughter, Faith, to a private school in North Carolina, but she cannot afford the tuition on her own. She needs the financial lifeline of an Opportunity Scholarship.

Colon Health Centers for America

Dr. Mark Baumel, of Colon Health Centers for America, wants to increase the rate of screening for colon cancers. But when Dr. Baumel and his partners sought Virginia’s permission to buy new CT scanners, it denied them a “certificate of need.”

Dottie and Omar Rivera

Dottie and Omar Rivera are Steve Camburn’s tenants. They have lived in Pottstown their entire lives and have rented their home from Steve for the last five years.

Matt & Sue Dery

Robert Martin

Jane Astramecki

IJ client Jane Astramecki, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, runs a home baking business. But Minnesota’s restrictive cottage food law bans her from earning more than $5,000 a year and from selling her treats at venues other than farmers’ markets and community events.

IJ By the Numbers

4 Litigation Pillars

Economic Liberty
Property Rights
School Choice
Free Speech

Support

80% from individuals
20% from foundations

IJ litigated 5 U.S. Supreme Court cases since 2002, including 4 victories

IJ is currently litigating 43 cases in 26 states and Washington, D.C.

7 offices

100 employees, including 44 attorneys

Attorneys

Staff

1080 Partners giving $1,000 or more each year

Over 8,000 individual donors

= 25 donors

$22 million budget in FY17

FY16 Budget Breakdown

79%: Programs

14%: Administration

7%: Development

91 legislative reforms secured

48 national awards for communications

70%

Success Rate

Through litigation and legislation

IJ strategic research cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and in 192 articles in scholarly, law, and policy publications.

64 eminent domain projects and blight designations defeated by IJ activism.

Behind the Scenes at IJ

Victory in Chicago!

Victory! The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneur has been providing legal support and legislative advocacy for Chicago’s street vendors for more than 8 years. Yesterday was the ribbon cutting for their shared kitchen space and it is a day that marks their ability to come out of the shadow economy, comply with the law, and serve delicious treats on Chicago’s streets without fear of harassment, fines or arrest.
Testifying before the Louisiana Senate

14 braiders joined IJ at the Louisiana Senate on May 31 for a hearing on our 2 braiding freedom bills. IJ’s Lee McGrath and Michelle, a Shreveport braider, testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs.
Victory in Little Rock!

IJ client Ken Leininger won his lawsuit against the city of Little Rock and now has his new taxi permits!
Victory in Chicago!

Vicky Lugo, leader of the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship client Street Vendors Association of Chicago(SVAC), is proud to present the business license for the SVAC commercial shared kitchen space! Lugo and SVAC have been working since 2015, when the Chicago ordinance legalizing street food was passed, to create a shared kitchen space for SVAC’s vendors who sell delicious, traditional Mexican treats on Chicago’s streets.
Case launch in Minnesota

Today IJ and small farm wineries filed suit to challenge MN’s restrictions on wine making. This photo is from the press conference.

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Major Win for School Choice at U.S. Supreme Court

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Louisville Food Trucks Sue to End City’s Corrupt Bargain with Restaurant Lobby

Victory for School Choice in Georgia

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 15 consecutive 4-star ratings

Rek LeCounte | Press Release | June 28, 2017

John Kramer | Press Release | June 27, 2017

Institute for Justice Represents Colorado Families in Doyle Case

John Kramer | Press Release | June 26, 2017

Trinity Lutheran Also Raised Questions Regarding Bigoted & Notorious Blaine Amendments That Still May Be Addressed by High Court through the Institute for Justice’s Douglas County School Choice Case

Shira Rawlinson | Press Release | June 26, 2017

Court Rejects Challenge to Georgia’s Popular Tax Credit Scholarship Program

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | June 23, 2017

Rek LeCounte | Update | June 23, 2017

Rek LeCounte | Update | June 21, 2017

When the government gets in your way, have you ever stopped and asked why?

EVERYTHING

Watch the Institute for Justice’s award-winning short film spotlighting the importance of compensating bone marrow donors.

SUPPORT OUR WORK

The National Law Firm for Liberty

Our Issues

School Choice

Economic Liberty

First Amendment

Private Property

IJ By the Numbers

4 Litigation Pillars

Support

IJ litigated 5 U.S. Supreme Court cases since 2002, including 4 victories

IJ is currently litigating 43 cases in 26 states and Washington, D.C.

7 offices

100 employees, including 44 attorneys

Attorneys

Staff

1080 Partners giving $1,000 or more each year

Over 8,000 individual donors

FY16 Budget Breakdown

79%: Programs

14%: Administration

7%: Development

91 legislative reforms secured

48 national awards for communications

70%

Success Rate

Through litigation and legislation

IJ strategic research cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and in 192 articles in scholarly, law, and policy publications.

64 eminent domain projects and blight designations defeated by IJ activism.

Behind the Scenes at IJ

Victory in Chicago!

Testifying before the Louisiana Senate

Victory in Little Rock!

Victory in Chicago!

Case launch in Minnesota

JOIN THE FIGHT! Sign up for newsletters:

Footer Signup

Litigating for Liberty.

JOIN THE FIGHT!