Institute for Justice

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Victory for Carolina Beach Food Trucks

October 10, 2018

Fish Creek Small Business Fights for the Right to Run a Food Truck

October 10, 2018

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

Akron Charity Sues for Right to Shelter the Homeless

City refuses to allow man to use his commercial property to host tent community; fears tents will be gone by Thanksgiving

Akron, Ohio—Since ancient times, good samaritans have used their land to shelter the neediest. That tradition continues today in Akron, Ohio, where Sage Lewis—a local entrepreneur—welcomed a group of homeless people to set up tents in the back lot of his business after the city forced them off public land. That was more than a…

New Poll: 76% of Americans More Likely to Vote for Candidates Who Back Forfeiture Reform

With the midterms just three weeks away, a new poll found widespread opposition to civil forfeiture, a controversial practice that lets law enforcement agencies seize and keep property, without a criminal conviction or even filing charges. Conducted by the Institute for Justice and YouGov, the poll found that 76 percent of Americans would be more…

South Side Pitch Crowns Winner in Fifth Annual Business Competition

Innovative exercise solution Liv Labs rises above 130 competitors

CHICAGO—Five South Side entrepreneurs took the stage last week with three crowned winners and all the contestants gaining valuable experience in promoting their unique business idea. For five years running, the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) has hosted South Side Pitch. Liv Labs, an innovative solution to help women exercise with confidence,…

Victory for Carolina Beach Food Trucks

Town rules out protectionist ordinance

Carolina Beach, N.C.—At a public town council meeting last night, the Carolina Beach council announced that it intends to make Carolina Beach a leader for food truck freedom and remove, rather than enact, barriers to competition. This comes six weeks after it repealed an unconstitutional ordinance requiring food truck owners own a brick-and-mortar restaurant in…

Fish Creek Small Business Fights for the Right to Run a Food Truck

Town board that banned businesses on wheels sued for violating Wisconsin’s Constitution

Sturgeon Bay, Wis.—The owners of White Cottage Red Door, a Door County shop known for “everything cherry,” filed a constitutional challenge to the town of Gibraltar’s food-truck ban. When the small business opened a food truck in its parking lot in the summer of 2017, the Town of Gibraltar’s board, chaired by a local brick-and-mortar…

U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Missouri Hair Braiding Case

Decision effectively ends case after state’s new stand-alone braiding license went into effect

Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Supreme Court today effectively brought to an end a four-year challenge to Missouri’s licensing of African-style hair braiders. The braiders, working with the Institute for Justice (IJ), challenged the state’s requirement that they spend thousands of dollars on 1,500 hours of cosmetology training even though the training did not cover braiding. Earlier…

New Jersey Creates New License for Natural Hair Braiders

License Shaves Off Over 1,100 Hours of Useless Classes

On Thursday, a new specialty license for African-style natural hair braiders was signed into law in New Jersey. Under the law (A-3754), a braider can now become licensed after completing a maximum of 40 to 50 hours of coursework, depending on their experience level. Previously, braiders could only legally work if they had a cosmetology…

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.
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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.
more on this issue »

IJ IN THE MOVIES

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE

CATHERINE KEENER

EMMY NOMINEE

JEANNE TRIPPLEHORN

LITTLE PINK HOUSE

SHE FOUGHT FOR HER HOME. AND YOURS.

ECONOMIC LIBERTY

Occupational Licensing Blocks Americans' Right to Earn an Honest Living.

OccupationalLicensing.com

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December 7, 2017 | Strategic Research

Flour Power

How Cottage Food Entrepreneurs Are Using Their Home Kitchens to Become Their Own Bosses
December 5, 2017 | Strategic Research

Finding the American Dream at Home

How Home-Based Businesses Benefit Entrepreneurs and Their Communities

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.

Aaron and Monica Cannon

Jessica Hadraba

Tracy McGlothian

Larry Miller

Larry Miller has been fighting for the rights of Atlanta’s vendors for the past twenty-five years.

Dale Sorcher

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.

Lata Jagtiani

Lata has been threading since she was a teenager in India and saw a need for threading services in the New Orleans metropolitan area. But in June 2016, state regulators fined her business for employing unlicensed threaders, and ordered Lata to fire her unlicensed employees.

Heather Coffy

Heather is a single mom and has three children she wants to participate in Indiana’s school choice program.

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.

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.

Achan Agit

Achan works in fear that Iowa will punish her for providing her services without a license. If she could braid without a license, she would reopen her salon, grow her business and better provide for her family.

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.

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.

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

Josh Craven

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

Shelia Champion

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

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.

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.

Jill Homan

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.

Salamata Sylla

The Washington Department of Licensing ordered IJ client Salamata Sylla to obtain a time-consuming and irrelevant cosmetology license for hair braiding. IJ sued on her behalf and forced the Department to adopt a rule exempting braiders.

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.

Ken Leininger

After eight years of working as a driver for Yellow Cab, Ken Leininger decided to start his own business. But when Ken tried to get permits for his new business early last year, Little Rock denied his applications.

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.”

Chris Hadraba

Sage Lewis

Charles Clarke

Charles Clarke is a college student, who spent over 5 years to save up $11,000—only to have it seized by law enforcement officials before he was scheduled to board a flight at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport.

James Jenkins

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.”

Jeanette Strohm-Anderson and Mark Anderson

IJ school choice parents Mark and Jeanette Anderson plan to send their son, Max, to a school with a math and science curriculum that better fits his interests and needs.

Lisa Howard

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.

Ricardo Quintanilla

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

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.

Jon McGlothian

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.

Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto

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

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.

Scott Dow

Scott Dow has spent more than two decades working with computers, geospatial and remote sensing and 3D computer modeling.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nikki McGowan

Nikki McGowan owns and operates the Madame BBQ food truck. She is challenging Baltimore’s 300-foot rule because it prevents her from successfully operating in the city.

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.

Esteban Narez

Esteban Narez, 26, grew up in Watsonville, California with his mother and two sisters. Esteban withdrew from high school his senior year due to a major injury. He hasn’t been able to get a GED because the medical bills and his family’s finances have forced him to work full-time ever since. Esteban wants to train as a farrier, but California won’t let him.

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.

Ron Hines

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

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.

Akron Charity Sues for Right to Shelter the Homeless

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Victory for Carolina Beach Food Trucks

Fish Creek Small Business Fights for the Right to Run a Food Truck

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

J. Justin Wilson | Press Release | October 16, 2018

City refuses to allow man to use his commercial property to host tent community; fears tents will be gone by Thanksgiving

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | October 15, 2018

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | October 15, 2018

Innovative exercise solution Liv Labs rises above 130 competitors

Conor Beck | Press Release | October 10, 2018

Town rules out protectionist ordinance

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | October 10, 2018

Town board that banned businesses on wheels sued for violating Wisconsin’s Constitution

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | October 9, 2018

Decision effectively ends case after state’s new stand-alone braiding license went into effect

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | October 5, 2018

License Shaves Off Over 1,100 Hours of Useless Classes

Our Issues

Educational Choice

Economic Liberty

First Amendment

Private Property

IJ IN THE MOVIES

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE

CATHERINE KEENER

EMMY NOMINEE

JEANNE TRIPPLEHORN

LITTLE PINK HOUSE

SHE FOUGHT FOR HER HOME. AND YOURS.

ECONOMIC LIBERTY

Occupational Licensing Blocks Americans' Right to Earn an Honest Living.

OccupationalLicensing.com

SUPPORT OUR WORK

The National Law Firm for Liberty

Our Videos

Our Research

December 7, 2017 | Strategic Research

How Cottage Food Entrepreneurs Are Using Their Home Kitchens to Become Their Own Bosses

December 5, 2017 | Strategic Research

How Home-Based Businesses Benefit Entrepreneurs and Their Communities

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