Institute for Justice

Homepage

Business Owners Bring Free Speech Lawsuit Against “Mural Police”

May 21, 2019

Savannah Judge Holds Tour-Guide License Unconstitutional

May 21, 2019

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 17 consecutive 4-star ratings

Congress Passes Bill to Protect Small-Business Owners from IRS Seizures

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation that stops the Internal Revenue Service from raiding the bank accounts of small-business owners. The Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers RESPECT Act, passed as part of the Taxpayer First Act (H.R. 3151), is named after Institute for Justice clients Jeff Hirsch and Randy Sowers, two victims of the IRS’s aggressive seizures for so-called “structuring.” Through structuring…

Alabama Enacts New Transparency Requirements for Civil Forfeiture

Gov. Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Forfeiture Information Reporting Act (SB 191) late Monday, which will shine a light on law enforcement’s often secretive use of civil forfeiture. Without ever charging the owner with a crime, police and prosecutors can seize cash, cars, and other valuables, and if the property is forfeited, keep up to…

Free Speech Fight: Texas Veterinarian Heads to Appeals Court for Right to Give Advice Online

First Amendment Lawsuit Has Major Implications for Free Speech and Telepractice

AUSTIN, Texas—Today, Texas veterinarian Dr. Ron Hines announced that he will ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recognize that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer, NIFLA v. Becerra, established that the First Amendment protects the right of licensed professionals to give advice over the internet. Ron joined forces with the…

New Report: Nation’s Largest Forfeiture Program Fails to Fight Crime

Extensive, Decade-Long Study Also Provides Fresh Evidence of “Policing for Profit” in Federal Equitable Sharing Program

Arlington, Va.—A new Institute for Justice study (PDF) finds the nation’s largest forfeiture program does not help police fight crime. Instead, the study indicates police use forfeiture to boost revenue—in other words, to police for profit. The IJ study, “Fighting Crime or Raising Revenue? Testing Opposing Views of Forfeiture,” combines local crime, drug use and economic…

Minnesota (Finally) Untangles Hair Braiders From Licensing Laws

Minnesota will no longer license natural hair braiders thanks to an omnibus budget bill Gov. Tim Walz signed on Thursday. Previously, Minnesota required braiders to complete a 30-hour course and pay a $20 fee before they could practice their craft. But under SF 10, braiders are now completely exempt from all occupational and facility licensing…

Texas Supreme Court Declines to Hear Challenge to Alcohol Distribution Law

Craft breweries must continue forfeiting their own distribution rights

Today, in a blow to the economic liberty of all Texans, the Texas Supreme Court refused to grant review in a constitutional challenge that asked whether the government can use its power to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. The legal challenge concerned a law passed in 2013 at the behest of beer distributors…

Maryland Court of Special Appeals Reinstates Baltimore Food Truck Restrictions

Food Truck Owners Will Appeal to State’s Highest Court

Arlington, Va.—The Maryland Court of Special Appeals yesterday reinstated Baltimore’s ban on mobile vendors operating within 300 feet of any brick and mortar establishment selling similar food. This overturns a 2017 Baltimore Circuit Court ruling that declared the city’s 300-foot ban too vague to enforce. The Institute for Justice (IJ) and two food trucks, Pizza…

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.
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 »

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

GIVE NOW $25 $50 $75 $100 $250

The National Law Firm for Liberty

Support the Institute for Justice with a tax-deductible contribution today.

Our Videos

See All Videos »

Our Research

See All Research »

November 14, 2018 | Strategic Research

At What Cost

State and National Estimates of the Economic Costs of Occupational Licensing
November 15, 2018 | Strategic Research

Ready to Roll

Nine Lessons from Ending Wisconsin's Home-Baking Ban

Liz Robbins

Liz has seven children, three of whom have a severe tissue disorder called EDS which requires constant medical attention. Liz needs Nevada’s ESA so she can design a quality education for her youngest EDS child, Dallin, who will likely miss a lot of school in the future.

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.

Lissette Waugh

Nevada is trying to force makeup artistry instructors, like IJ client Lissette Waugh, to get a license they don’t need.

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.

Phil Parhamovich

In March 2017, Phil Parhamovich, a musician from Madison, Wisconsin, was pulled over by the Wyoming Highway Patrol and pressured into signing a pre-printed waiver that stated he was “giving” his $91,800 in cash to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Fortunately, after the Institute for Justice took his case, law enforcement returned all of the cash they had wrongfully taken from Phil.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Young Americans for Freedom

Whitworth University Young Americans for Freedom Chapter (WU-YAF) has members who are eligible for the State Work-Study Program, but some of their desired employers are considered ineligible because they are “sectarian.”

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.

Spencer Byrd

Courtney Haveman

Courtney wanted to become an esthetician so she could earn extra income and have flexible hours to spend with her son. But the state cosmetology board denied Courtney a license because of her criminal record, which has nothing to do with cosmetology.

Jill Homan

Jill Homan lives in Petworth with her family and sends her one-year-old daughter to a day care center in Northeast D.C. Jill wants to stand up for day care providers’ right to earn a living and for her own right to choose her child’s caretakers.

John Rosemond

John Rosemond’s lawsuit defends freedom of speech and freedom of the press from government officials who believe that it can be a crime in America to express an opinion in a newspaper.

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.

Regino Soriano

Regino Soriano owns a popular food truck named El Bandolero, but his plans to expand have been significantly restricted by San Antonio’s city’s 300-foot rule.

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.”

Dela Ends

Dela Ends owns and runs a small, USDA-certified organic farm in Green County, Wisconsin. Selling her home-baked goods would let Dela help support her family, but is illegal under state law.

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.

Dr. Lee Birchansky

Recognized as one of the top ophthalmologists in the country, Dr. Lee Birchansky seeks to offer the kind of medical innovation Iowans need.

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.

Aimee and Heath Hairr

Aimee and Heath Hairr have five adopted children. Their oldest, Nolan, was floundering in his public school and endured intense bullying. The Hairrs just want Nolan to have a safe learning environment and for their other children to have the same.

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.

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.

Dan Burgess

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

Dale Sorcher

Dale Sorcher has cared for infants and toddlers at a Jewish day care on and off since 1996 and holds two masters degrees, one in social work and one in expressive therapy. Unfortunately, under a new regulation in the District of Columbia, her experience does not qualify her to keep her job.

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.

Jason and Jacki Wiebesick

Jason and Jacki have owned their property in Golden Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis, for decades. But the city hasn’t respected their tenants’ wishes and instead has tried to obtain unconstitutional “administrative” warrants to force its way inside.

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.

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.”

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.

Keena Bean

Keena Bean is a tenant in an apartment home that is currently subject to Seattle’s rental-inspection program. She finds the idea of a stranger looking through her house inappropriate and disturbing.

Mark Zaniewski

Mark owns the Metro Marathon service station in Sterling Heights, Mich., which has been in the family for 40 years. But in 2013, the IRS seized over $70,000, even though Mark violated no law.

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.

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.

Vincent Blount

Vincent Blount has accumulated $2,800 in fines,and even served jail time, due to Pagedale, Missouri’s system of excessive municipal fines.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anubis and Ramses Avalos

Richard Beyer

Richard and his business partner poured thousands of hours of sweat equity into renovating the two homes and the lots they purchased in New London, Conn.

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.

Jim Ficken

Bill Von Winkle

Bill Von Winkle’s Fort Trumbull Deli served oversized hoagies to eager customers from 1986 until 2001 when the New London Development Corporation’s actions forced the Von Winkles to shut it down and forgo its income.

Benigno Diaz

Benny Diaz owns and operates the “Taco Trap” food truck. But he can’t sell his tacos in Fort Pierce, Florida because the city bans all food trucks within 500 feet of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

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

Matthew Bentley, Joseph Briere and Wesley Williams

Bentley, Williams, and Briere live with their three roommates in Northwest Seattle and objected to the city’s warrantless rental inspection.

Report: Nation’s Largest Forfeiture Program Fails to Fight Crime

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Business Owners Bring Free Speech Lawsuit Against “Mural Police”

Savannah Judge Holds Tour-Guide License Unconstitutional

Less than 1% of 8,000 charities rated have received at least 17 consecutive 4-star ratings

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | June 14, 2019

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | June 11, 2019

Conor Beck | Press Release | June 11, 2019

First Amendment Lawsuit Has Major Implications for Free Speech and Telepractice

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | June 11, 2019

Extensive, Decade-Long Study Also Provides Fresh Evidence of “Policing for Profit” in Federal Equitable Sharing Program

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | May 31, 2019

Conor Beck | Press Release | May 31, 2019

Craft breweries must continue forfeiting their own distribution rights

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | May 31, 2019

Food Truck Owners Will Appeal to State’s Highest Court

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

November 14, 2018 | Strategic Research

State and National Estimates of the Economic Costs of Occupational Licensing

November 15, 2018 | Strategic Research

Nine Lessons from Ending Wisconsin's Home-Baking Ban

JOIN THE FIGHT! Sign up for newsletters:

Footer Signup

Litigating for Liberty.

JOIN THE FIGHT!