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Coalition Urges SCOTUS to Eliminate "Constitution-free zones" for Federal Officers

September 14, 2021

Aspiring Addiction Counselor Sues to End Virginia’s Past-Conviction Discrimination

September 29, 2021

Less than 1% of the nearly 10,000 charities rated have received at least 20 consecutive 4-star ratings

State Con Law Case of the Week: Eternal Vigilance Against the Rational Basis Test

As we’ve discussed many times at the Center for Judicial Engagement, state courts often break with the federal courts and apply a more demanding standard under their own state constitutions than federal courts do under the U.S. Constitution in all kinds of situations. This includes search and seizure cases, freedom of religion cases, and even…

Orange City Landlords and Tenants Score Major Win in Challenge to Unconstitutional Home Inspections

Orange City threatens Iowans with non-consensual, pointless searches of unwilling tenants

ORANGE CITY, Iowa—Yesterday afternoon, the Iowa District Court for Sioux County issued an opinion denying an attempt by Orange City, Iowa, to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its rental inspection ordinance. This ordinance allows the government to enter the most intimate confines of tenants’ homes—including bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and closets—in search of housing code violations, even…

Federal Judge Deals Another Blow to FBI in U.S. Private Vaults Raid

The Institute for Justice took another major step forward in its effort to hold the government to account for an FBI raid that broke open hundreds of individual security deposit boxes at U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills business. On October 12, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner held that IJ’s Fourth Amendment challenge to…

State Con Law Case of the Week: Ordinary Originalism in Delaware

From all the fights about the “original meaning” of the U.S. Constitution—both whether original meaning should be central to constitutional interpretation and what that original meaning of various clauses actually is—you would think those battles replicate themselves when judges, scholars, and lawyers start talking about state constitutions. But, refreshingly, that’s generally not the case. State…

Kentucky Parents Vow to Appeal Ruling Against School Choice Program

A legal attack seeks to end Kentucky’s bold school choice program

Frankfort, Ky.—Today, the Franklin County Circuit Court ruled that Kentucky’s bold Education Opportunity Account Program, enacted in 2021 to give thousands of low- and middle-income families in Kentucky greater educational choice, is unconstitutional under Sections 59 and 184 of the Kentucky Constitution. Akia McNeary and Nancy Deaton, two parents who planned to use the program,…

Nevada Supreme Court Rules Against Families Challenging Reduction in Tax Credits for Scholarships

Nevada Supreme Court holds the Legislature did not violate the state constitution when it reduced tax credits that supported scholarship program

LAS VEGAS—Today, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled against families in their constitutional challenge to a law that reduced the amount of tax credits available for donors to the Nevada Educational Choice Scholarship Program. Three mothers of scholarship students, a scholarship granting foundation and two donors to scholarship programs were represented by the Institute for Justice…

IJ Video Wins “Best in Show” at w3 Awards

Yesterday, the Institute for Justice (IJ) took home the “Best in Show” award in the Non-Profit category at the w3 Awards, one of the premier honors for “digital excellence.” IJ’s award-winning video, titled “IJ Helps Ordinary People Fight Back,” was one of more than 1,000 entries, and was one of only 34 to receive best…

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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.
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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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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.
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IJ Works Wonders: An 8-Year Battle Against Excessive Fines

IJ Works Wonders: IJ Fights Half-baked Cottage Food Laws

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July 7, 2021 | Strategic Research

Beauty School Debt and Drop-Outs
February 10, 2021 | Strategic Research

Does Forfeiture Work?

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.

Josh Dykstra

Dr. Cara Harrop

Dr. Cara Harrop is a family doctor with over 20 years of experience. She runs Pure Health DPC, a primary care practice in Polson.

Mary Jackson

Mary is a certified lactation consultation with nearly three decades of experience, including teaching at Emory and Morehouse. But thanks to a new license in Georgia, Mary can no longer work in her current position helping women and children with hands-on breastfeeding advice.

Chip McElroy

Chip owns Live Oak Brewing, based in Austin, Texas. Established in 1997, Live Oak has been brewing craft beer long before its current surge in popularity. Now he is fighting a Texas law that forces craft brewers to give up millions of dollars of valuable property to politically connected beer distributors.

Anubis and Adonai Avalos

Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, Inc

Founded in 2011, ROSE is an Atlanta-based, nonprofit organization that works to increase access to breastfeeding support and improve healthcare equity among African-American communities in Georgia and around the country.

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.

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.

Carter Walker

Carter Walker is a reporter covering the county government for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspaper. To shine a light on forfeiture spending by the Lancaster County DA, he filed a request, which was denied. Carter appealed to Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records and won, but now the DA is fighting in court to keep this information secret.

Dina Galassini

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

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.

Donna Peizer

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.

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.

Michael Driesen

Iowa’s certificate-of-need requirement prevents Michael Driesen and his children from receiving future ENT surgeries from Korver ENT because Korver ENT cannot open its proposed surgery center before obtaining a certificate of need.

Gerardo Serrano

Gerardo Serrano owns a Ford F-250 pickup that was seized by Customs and Border Protection for civil forfeiture in September 2015. CBP seized the truck because they found five bullets in the center console, claiming they were “munitions of war.” After almost two years without a judge hearing his case, Gerardo joined with the Institute for Justice in September 2017 to file a lawsuit to get his truck back. Gerardo also filed suit on behalf of all U.S. citizens who have had vehicles seized by CBP, seeking an order requiring the agency to provide a prompt hearing whenever they take vehicles for civil forfeiture.

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.

Ben and Hank Brinkmann

Michael R. Jones

Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto

Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto, a Democrat representing Bernalillo County, carried the Forfeiture Reform bill on the floor of the Senate.

Tracy McGlothian

Tracy is an experienced sewer who teaches students how to sew as a hobby, but under Virginia law, she’s not allowed to teach students how to earn a living with sewing.

Josh Craven

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

Joyce Osborn Wilson

Joyce is banned from offering Alabamians a comfortable and clean place to use the prepackaged, teeth-whitening products she sells to customers.

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.

Robin Lamp

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

Builguissa Diallo

Kevin Howard

Kevin is one of the owners of White Cottage Red Door in Door County, Wisconsin. When the small business opened a food truck in its parking lot, the Town of Gibraltar’s board, chaired by a local restaurant owner, promptly banned all mobile businesses.

Byron Billingsley

Byron Billingsley was cited by police in Doraville, Georgia for going around a truck traveling at 5 mph—with no other traffic around—without using his turn signal. After hiring a lawyer to defend himself he paid $100. He has to keep driving through Doraville as he works in the city.

Dave and Amy Carson

Dave and Amy Carson are residents of Glenburn, Maine and have sent their daughter, Olivia, now a sophomore, to Bangor Christian Schools. But because Olivia’s school is religious, Glenburn is prohibited from paying for Olivia’s tuition.

Scott Dow

Scott Dow has spent more than two decades working with computers, geospatial and remote sensing and 3D computer modeling, before he co-founded Vizaline in Mississippi.

Terry Rolin

Terry Rolin, 79, was born and raised near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked for many years as a railroad engineer, but retired in 1994.

Buckley Family

Dr. Jay Singleton

Sarah Hohenberg

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.

Dr. Michael Garrett

Dr. Michael Garrett is a family doctor in Austin, Texas, who has been practicing medicine for over two decades. But unlike 45 states, in Texas, many patients can’t purchase medication directly from the doctor prescribing it.

Kendra Espinoza

Kendra desperately wanted to send her children to Stillwater, but knew she could not afford the tuition on her salary. So she started working to raise tuition funds. She held two yard sales and auctioned off handmade quilts made by a generous donor. She also found additional work cleaning houses. Adding to the extra funds, Stillwater provided the family with partial financial aid, and the girls began school there in September 2015.

Laura Pekarik

IJ client Laura Pekarik is an entrepreneurial dynamo who owns and operates the Cupcakes for Courage food truck.

Michael Nolan

Michael loves Charleston and plans to tell its story to visitors, but he will do so because he has a right to say what he wants—not because the city has given him its permission.

Jessica Hadraba

Jessica is one of the owners of White Cottage Red Door in Door County, Wisconsin. When the small business opened a food truck in its parking lot, the Town of Gibraltar’s board, chaired by a local restaurant owner, promptly banned all mobile businesses.

Sage Lewis

Sage Lewis pioneered an innovative community for the homeless on his commercial property at 15 Broad Street in Akron, Ohio. His nonprofit, The Homeless Charity, provides tents, food, showers, computers, and other resources to 44 residents. But Akron is trying to eliminate his work through the city’s zoning code.

Paul and Jennifer Snitko

Valarie Whitner

Valarie has received a set of warnings from Pagedale, threatening her with fines and fees for alleged violations. She was even arrested in front of her home and taken to Pagedale city hall because of an unspecified ticket.

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.

Jerry Johnson

Danielle Mickelson

Vicki Baker

Vicki Baker decided it was time to leave behind her longtime home in McKinney, Texas and retire to the mountains of Montana. Her plan was simple: she’d let her kids live in the house and get it ready to sell. On July 25, 2020, however, Vicki’s dream turned into a nightmare.

Linda Cameron

Linda Cameron has been living in the same Richland, Washington home for nearly 40 years. After consulting with a builder, Linda decided to turn her outdated carport into a garage and add a second bedroom and bathroom. But Richland won’t give her a building permit unless she pays over $60,000 in “impact fees.”

Lisa Kivirist

Lisa Kivirist is a mother, farmer, business owner and avid baker. Lisa typically serves muffins and other baked goods at her B&B for breakfast, but the baked-good ban prohibits her from selling these same exact goods to guests.

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New Jersey becomes the final state to allow the sale of home-baked goods

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Coalition Urges SCOTUS to Eliminate "Constitution-free zones" for Federal Officers

Aspiring Addiction Counselor Sues to End Virginia’s Past-Conviction Discrimination

Less than 1% of the nearly 10,000 charities rated have received at least 20 consecutive 4-star ratings

Anthony Sanders | Center for Judicial Engagement | October 16, 2021

Conor Beck | Press Release | October 15, 2021

Orange City threatens Iowans with non-consensual, pointless searches of unwilling tenants

Rob Johnson | Update | October 14, 2021

Anthony Sanders | Center for Judicial Engagement | October 8, 2021

Conor Beck | Press Release | October 8, 2021

A legal attack seeks to end Kentucky’s bold school choice program

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | October 7, 2021

Nevada Supreme Court holds the Legislature did not violate the state constitution when it reduced tax credits that supported scholarship program

Dan King | Press Release | October 6, 2021

Our Issues

Economic Liberty

Educational Choice

First Amendment

Private Property

IJ Works Wonders

IJ Works Wonders: An 8-Year Battle Against Excessive Fines

IJ Works Wonders: IJ Fights Half-baked Cottage Food Laws

SUPPORT OUR WORK

The National Law Firm for Liberty

Our Videos

Our Research

July 7, 2021 | Strategic Research

February 10, 2021 | Strategic Research

Sign up to receive IJ's biweekly digital magazine, Liberty & Law along with breaking updates about our fight to protect the rights of all Americans.

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