Institute for Justice

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Family-Run Farm Sues FDA for Right to Say Skim Milk is Skim Milk

April 6, 2018

Editorial: A Model for Licensing Reform

April 3, 2018

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 16 consecutive 4-star ratings

Nebraska Governor Signs Landmark Reform for Occupational Licensing

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed the Occupational Board Reform Act on Monday afternoon, a landmark law that will systematically reduce the state’s burdensome and arbitrary licenses. Today, Nebraska has more than 170 different occupational licenses, which cover almost a quarter of the state’s workforce. “Far too many workers are spending their time earning a license…

Nebraska Legislature Sends Landmark Licensing Reform to Governor

“If the governor signs this bill, Nebraska would become a national leader in licensing reform and set a landmark model for other states to follow.”

Florida Parents Ask State Supreme Court to End Legal Cloud Over Popular Educational Choice Programs

Arlington, Va.—On Monday, six parents asked the Florida Supreme Court to deny review of a 1st District Court of Appeal’s decision upholding both Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) and the John M. McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities. The parents got involved in the case, Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board…

St. Louis-area Braiders Appeal Missouri Braiding Law to U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON—Can the government make you spend tens of thousands of dollars on a thousand or more hours of job training, even though it admits that the training is almost totally irrelevant to your job? Common sense—and American constitutional history—says no. But, splitting with that history of legal decisions, the United States Court of Appeals for…

California Horseshoeing School Takes Trade School Ban to 9th Circuit

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The Institute for Justice (IJ) announced today that it will be taking a cutting-edge First Amendment lawsuit up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, following a lower court ruling that dealt a blow to some of California’s most marginalized and vulnerable workers. This morning, a federal judge in Sacramento dismissed…

Louisiana House Passes Bill to Streamline Occupational Licensing

The Louisiana House of Representatives voted late Monday to approve HB 748, a bill that would overhaul the state’s burdensome and arbitrary licenses. Licensing has spread far beyond the realm of doctors and lawyers in Louisiana. Today, many harmless trades like interior design, braiding hair or arranging flowers can only be entered after securing the…

Court Ruling Deals Blow to Minnesota Wine Lovers

Federal Judge Dismisses Challenge to Wine Law on Technicality, Minnesota Wineries to Appeal

Minneapolis—Minnesotans looking to buy their favorite wines at local wineries just faced a frustrating setback thanks to a new court ruling. Today, a federal judge in Minnesota dismissed a lawsuit from two Minnesota wineries challenging a little-known but onerous state law that severely restricts the amount of grapes they can use to make wine. Under…

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

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Our Issues

Educational Choice

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

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.

Senator Lisa Torraco

Senator Lisa Torraco, a Republican representing Bernalillo County, N.M., was the initial sponsor for the Forfeiture Reform Law in the State Senate.

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.

Scott Fisher and Gone Broke Gaming

Scott Fisher runs a video game store in Orange Park, Florida, just outside Jacksonville. To boost foot traffic and visibility for his business, he set up a giant inflatable Mario, only to run afoul of the town’s sign code. Scott has joined with the Institute for Justice to defend his First Amendment rights.

Michelle and Steven Freenor

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.

Lij Shaw

Elijah “Lij” Shaw is a single father and lifelong record producer and recorded nationally renowned, Grammy Award-winning performers like Adele, John Oates, Jack White and Wilco. After his daughter was born, Lij decided to convert his garage into a soundproofed recording studio, which he used without any complaints for over a decade. But now Nashville is threatening to destroy Lij’s investment and uproot him from his neighborhood.

Central Radio Company

Bob Wilson is blocked by the city of Norfolk, Va., from displaying a banner protesting eminent domain abuse outside his business, Central Radio Company.

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.”

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.

Aurora Espinoza

Aurora Espinoza is a single mom who works a full‑time job to make ends meet, has two daughters who are trapped by their zip code in some of the worst public schools in the state.

Matt & Sue Dery

The Slatic Family

James Slatic is a consummate entrepreneur who has started more than ten businesses and has been active in the medical marijuana movement. Annette works as a radiology technician for the local Veterans Administration Hospital. Lily is a sophomore at San Jose State University and her sister Penny is in high school.

Martha Rabello

Martha is a stay-at-home mom with two sons, a 5-year old and a 2-year old. She has baked her whole life and is professionally trained. Martha is Brazilian and lived in Brazil for 25 years, and she would like to start a home business focusing on Brazilian-inspired cookies.

Alexis Bailly Vineyard

Inspired by France’s wine-growing regions, Nan Bailly’s father started Alexis Bailly Vineyard, Minnesota’s oldest operating farm winery, in 1973. Nan has continued her father’s legacy, making Minnesota wines with her vineyard’s grapes and other locally-sourced ingredients. She would like the freedom to offer new and greater varieties of blended wine to the public without worrying about an arbitrary limit on how many of her grapes crossed Minnesota’s border.

Jeana and Jack Horner

Jeana and Jack Horner are among the hundreds of people each year who find themselves caught in Indianapolis’s forfeiture machine.

Jim Roos

St. Louis tried to take Jim Roos’ property through eminent domain. Jim protested by painting a giant sign on one of his buildings. The city then tried to censor him.

Rafael Lopez

San Antonio shut down Rafael’s food truck and threatened him with daily fines of up to $2,000 per day if he continued to vend.

Keith Westphal

IJ clients Keith Westphal and Joyce Osborn Wilson are banned from offering Alabamians a comfortable and clean place to use the prepackaged, teeth-whitening products they sell to customers.

Shelia Champion

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

Steve Cooksey

This caveman blogger fought for free speech and Internet freedom.

Susette Kelo

Susette is the Kelo in Kelo v. New London. She led her neighbors in a seven-year battle to save their homes from being taken by the government for private development, culminating in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2005.

Panna Shah

Panna Shah came to the United States from India in 2006 in search of a better life. She has been threading for more than 30 years but would be unable to thread full-time because she can’t afford to complete Louisiana’s irrelevant training requirements.

Korver Ear Nose and Throat LLC

Korver Ear Nose and Throat LLC owns a recently constructed medical facility in Orange City, Iowa. It would like to convert the lower level of this facility into an outpatient surgery center, but does not want to incur the enormous time, expense, and uncertainty of going through the certificate of need process, only to be denied because of its competitor’s opposition.

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.

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.

Celeste Kelly

IJ client Celeste Kelly spent hundreds of hours learning about horses in order to obtain private certifications in animal massage. But now the state of Arizona is forcing her to become a licensed veterinarian to continue practicing her craft.

Jeff Hirsch

Jeff has spent almost 30 years building a successful small business with his brothers, distributing candy, snacks and other goods to convenience stores throughout Long Island. But the government raided the business’s bank account using civil forfeiture—taking $446,000 and nearly destroying the family business. T

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.

Tameka Stigers

IJ client Tameka Stigers is the proud owner of a braiding business, but Missouri’s arbitrary and irrational cosmetology regime threatens her livelihood.

Michael Peticolas

Michael Peticolas owns Peticolas Brewing, located in an industrial neighborhood near downtown Dallas. In 2013, Texas passed a law that prohibits brewers from negotiating with distributors for the value of their territorial rights. Instead, the law forces brewers to give those rights away for free. That jeopardizes his plans to expand into other parts of Texas.

Troy King

After working in the food service industry for several years, Troy King purchased his first food truck in 2014—a gourmet chicken food truck called Pollo. But in September 2016, Troy was operating Pollo in downtown Louisville when a city inspector threatened to issue a citation and tow his truck simply because Troy was serving customers within 150 feet a restaurant that also serves chicken. Troy was forced to abandon his vending location and his customers.

David Vocatura

Vocatura’s Bakery was founded in 1919, almost one hundred years ago, and has been owned and operated by three generations of the Vocatura family. Claiming the owners violated so-called “structuring” laws by depositing cash in the bakery’s bank account in amounts less than $10,000, the IRS seized more than $68,000 from the family.

Isis Brantley

For decades, Isis Brantley has fought for her right to braid hair and to pass on her knowledge to others. She successfully sued the state of Texas after it attempted to force her to turn her braiding school into a barber college.

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.

Rhett Keisler

Rett owns Revolver Brewing, south of Fort Worth. He is fighting a Texas law that forces brewers to give up their distribution rights to distributors for free. Even worse, distributors can then sell those rights to other distributors and pocket the money.

Ricardo Quintanilla

Ricardo Quintanilla operates Tacos el Regio but San Antonio’s vending restrictions make it difficult to operate.

Samantha Harris

Samantha Harris hired Sally Ladd, a New Jersey-based entrepreneur, to manager her short-term vacation rental in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. But when Pennsylvania wanted Ladd to obtain a real-estate broker’s license, which requires her to spend three years working for an established broker, Sally felt forced to shut down her business.

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.

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.

Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts

Miami Shores Village, Fla., told Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts to remove their front-yard vegetable garden or face $50 a day in fines. But trees, fruit and garden gnomes are just fine.

Archdiocese of Newark

The Archdiocese of Newark is one of the largest in terms of population in the U.S., with nearly 1.3 million Catholics and 219 parishes. The Archdiocese is fighting a New Jersey law that makes it a crime to sell monuments, such as headstones, to their parishioners.

Joey Vanoni

The owner and operator of the Pizza di Joey food truck, Joey is challenging Baltimore’s 300-foot rule because it threatens his lifelong dream of owning his own pizza business. He also believes that the city shouldn’t be limiting hungry Baltimoreans’ dining choices.

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.

Robin Farris

Robin Farris beat Washington state’s Public Disclosure Commission with IJ’s help. She fought for the right to sue the government to protect our constitutional rights.

Jameelah El-Shabazz

In 2011, police raided Jameelah El-Shabazz’s apartment in New York City and found several cups filled with crushed eggshells, which Jameelah uses for religious purposes. Believing the cups were filled with drugs, police arrested Jameelah and her son Akin and held them in jail for a week. They also had her apartment closed . City attorneys, relying on those same discredited allegations about the cups of crushed eggshells, claimed the apartment had been the site of drug crimes, and had her apartment closed under the city’s no-fault eviction ordinance. Unable to fight back in court, Jameelah had to agree to permanently bar her son from her home in order to regain access to her own apartment.

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.

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.

Dina Galassini

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

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.

IJ By the Numbers

4 Litigation Pillars

Economic Liberty
Property Rights
Educational 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

103 employees, including 44 attorneys

Attorneys

Staff

1,189 Partners giving $1,000 or more each year

Over 8,000 individual donors

= 25 donors

$25 million budget in FY18

FY17 Budget Breakdown

81%: Programs

11%: Administration

8%: Development

91 legislative reforms secured

51 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

Forfeiture Victory in Wyoming

IJ attorneys Anya Bidwell and Dan Alban with IJ client Phil Parhamovich outside the Wyoming courtroom where they successfully argued (on Dec. 1) that Phil’s $91,800 in life savings should be returned to him. It was seized in March by Wyoming law enforcement during a traffic stop on I-80 near Cheyenne.
New Case in Nashville

IJ attorney Keith Diggs stands next to IJ client Lij Shaw (microphone) at today’s press conference. Lij operates a successful recording studio in his home, but Nashville wants to shut him down.
Holiday Card Preview!

Kids of IJ Production Director Don Wilson check out this year’s holiday card on press.
Defending the Brewers

Today, IJ appeared before the Texas Third Court of Appeals to protect our 2016 victory over a law that forced craft brewers to give away a valuable piece of their business to politically connected distributors. PICTURED: IJ attorneys and clients.
Arguing before the 8th Circuit

Today we argued before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Missouri’s hairbraiders. The government forces them to take 1,500 hours of irrelevant cosmetology training just to braid hair. That’s unconstitutional. PICTURED: IJ staff and braiders after today’s argument.

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Woman who lost pink house, court case seeks box office win

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Family-Run Farm Sues FDA for Right to Say Skim Milk is Skim Milk

Editorial: A Model for Licensing Reform

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 16 consecutive 4-star ratings

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | April 23, 2018

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | April 18, 2018

Rek LeCounte | Press Release | April 17, 2018

Rek LeCounte | Press Release | April 13, 2018

Rek LeCounte | Press Release | April 12, 2018

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | April 10, 2018

Rek LeCounte | Press Release | April 9, 2018