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North Wilkesboro Homeless Shelter Wins Right to Open

December 21, 2021

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

New Year’s Resolutions for an Engaged Judiciary

Happy New Year from your friends at the Center for Judicial Engagement! We look forward to continuing our advocacy for judicial engagement throughout the year. We will be hitting the road again and discussing the importance of state constitutions in both Georgia and Michigan. And we will keep plugging judicial engagement on your favorite podcast…

Victory: South Dakota City Agrees to Allow Taxi Operator to Reopen, Change Unconstitutional Law

Debra Gagne can reopen her business in time for the holidays

WATERTOWN, S.D.—After weeks of having her business shuttered and losing out on income, Debra Gagne can finally reopen her ride-for-hire company. This morning, the Watertown City Council held a special session to grant Debra a license to reopen Need-A-Ride, just in time for the busy holiday season. City officials also said they plan to reform…

North Wilkesboro Homeless Shelter Wins Right to Open

Court finds North Wilkesboro zoning board relied on irrational reasons to prevent Barber Shelter from opening

Today, a federal district court held that the Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter should be allowed to open at its property in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and that the town and its zoning board violated the U.S. Constitution and North Carolina law in deciding otherwise. In October 2020, the Institute for Justice (IJ), a nonprofit,…

Public Interest Law Firm Calls on South Dakota Town to End Unconstitutional Taxi Law

Watertown fines licensed drivers for accepting cash for rides unless city determines there’s a “need”

WATERTOWN, S.D. — Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) sent a letter to the city of Watertown, South Dakota, calling on officials to end the harmful “certificate of necessity” law for taxis. This law prevents individuals from offering car rides in exchange for cash, unless the city determines the existing public transportation infrastructure is “inadequate.”…

State Con Law Case of the Week: Aiding & Abetting Socialism

This week an old case with a fiery warning. Everyone who takes Constitutional Law in law school (or maybe in undergraduate versions too) learns that the Supreme Court killed economic liberty in 1937 with West Coast Hotel v. Parrish. There, it is taught, the Court closed the door on the Lochner era and has since…

Pennsylvania Hunting Clubs Challenge Warrantless Searches of Private Land

Clearfield County, Penn.—Imagine spending July Fourth with family in the beautiful forests of the Allegheny Mountains. You’re sitting on the porch on private land, enjoying the peace and quiet and making memories. Then, a man storms up out of nowhere and says he’s been watching you for days with binoculars from a hidden spot on…

U.S. Coast Guard Sued for Denying Captain His Registration to Pilot Ships on the Great Lakes

New lawsuit charges Coast Guard with delay that keeps experienced captain from earning an honest living

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Coast Guard refuses to hoist the white flag and register Captain Matthew Hight to pilot ships on the Great Lakes, despite losing a federal lawsuit that forced it to administer a required test—which Hight passed. Now Captain Hight, represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), has filed a second federal lawsuit demanding that…

Our Issues

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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October 20, 2021 |

Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair

Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims
July 7, 2021 | Strategic Research

Beauty School Debt and Drop-Outs

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.

Georgia and Grandy Montgomery

Terry and Ria Platt

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

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.

Dennis and Cathy Griffin

Amanda Spillane

After being in prison for two years, when Amanda got out, she became passionate about cosmetology and even got a job offer at a salon before she finished school. But the state board denied her a cosmetology license, claiming she lacked “good moral character.”

Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter

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.

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.

Jon McGlothian

After completing his military service as an Army Ranger, Jon McGlothian of Virginia Beach, Va., became a PMP-certified project manager. But Jon can’t advertise to the public or take on individual students because his school isn’t licensed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Jeremy Bennett

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.

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.

Brent Melton

Brent worked in banking for 42 years before he co-founded Vizaline to provide small community banks with a cost effective way to assess small property assets within their portfolios. But the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors claimed the company was practicing unlicensed surveying.

Punxsutawney Hunting Club

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.

Kriss Marion

Kriss Marion is the founder of her local farmers’ market in Blanchardville, Wisconsin. But under the state’s ban on selling home-baked goods, Kriss must instead give her extra baked goods away or feed them to her pigs and chickens.

Elizabeth Brokamp

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.

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.

Joe Corsini

Next Chapter Winery

Next Chapter Winery is a family-run winery in New Prague, Minnesota built by Timothy and Therese Tulloch. To grow Next Chapter’s business, they would like to offer more varieties of wine, which would require using more grapes from other regions.

Robert Martin

Robert Martin operates the Red’s Comfort Foods food truck and offers specialty gourmet hot dogs and sausages in Louisville, Kentucky. The city’s 150-foot ban makes it difficult for Robert to operate his Red’s Comfort Foods food truck in Louisville because the law creates no-vending zones that extend 150 feet around every restaurant, café and eating establishment in the city. In fact, Robert was even cited in 2015 for vending downtown within 150 feet of a restaurant.

Joe Marino

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.

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.

Joe and Annalyse Victor

Heather Russinko

Heather is a single mother of a 14-year-old son. After bringing in baked goods to her son’s school for fundraisers and to his football team, Heather started getting many requests to sell them. But then Heather learned that selling her goods from home was illegal. Heather wants very much to be able to resume selling her delicious goods so she can use the money to support her son.

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.

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.

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.

James Jenkins

James Jenkins, along with his husband, is the co-owner of Valancourt Books in Richmond, Virginia, which specializes in reviving and popularizing rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction.

Ameera Shaheed

Donna Peizer

Peg and David Schroeder

Tammy Holland

In September 2015, Tammy Holland took out two ads in her local Colorado newspaper to alert readers to upcoming school-board elections. For that simple act of civic engagement, Tammy was sued—twice—by incumbent school board members who didn’t appreciate the publicity. Tammy teamed up with IJ to challenge Colorado’s abuse-prone system of enforcing private campaign-finance complaints. In June 2018, a federal court sided with Tammy and declared Colorado’s system unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Dr. Jay Singleton

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.

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.

Dina Galassini

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

Ricardo Quintanilla

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

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.

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.

Flor Morency

Flor Morency is the mother of twin children, a boy and a girl, who have received scholarships through Nevada’s program. But in July, Morency was told that her children could no longer receive a scholarship because a new state law made it statistically impossible to grant scholarships to all renewing students.

Lynn Schofield

Growing up in the Ivory Coast, Lynn Schofield learned to braid from her family. When Lynn moved to Louisiana, she opened her own braiding salon that once had more than 20 employees. But that all changed in 2003, when the Board began requiring braiders to obtain a license.

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.

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.

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.

Ron Hines

The First Amendment should apply to licensed professionals who give advice over the Internet.

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.

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Supreme Court Must Decide: Will Federal Police Remain Above the Law?

Institute for Justice

Homepage

North Wilkesboro Homeless Shelter Wins Right to Open

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

Adam Shelton | Center for Judicial Engagement | January 3, 2022

Dan King | Press Release | December 22, 2021

Debra Gagne can reopen her business in time for the holidays

J. Justin Wilson | Press Release | December 20, 2021

Court finds North Wilkesboro zoning board relied on irrational reasons to prevent Barber Shelter from opening

Dan King | Press Release | December 20, 2021

Watertown fines licensed drivers for accepting cash for rides unless city determines there’s a “need”

Anthony Sanders | Center for Judicial Engagement | December 17, 2021

Conor Beck | Press Release | December 16, 2021

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | December 15, 2021

New lawsuit charges Coast Guard with delay that keeps experienced captain from earning an honest living

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

October 20, 2021 |

Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims

July 7, 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.

Footer Signup

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