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.

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.

Paul and Jennifer Snitko

Larry Miller

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

Della Sims

Della Sims is a retired postal worker who has rented from Josefina Lozano in Zion, Illinois since 1998. She’s fighting back against the city’s warrantless rental inspections.

Joe Marino

Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter

Raj Bhandari

The Kazazi Family

The Kazazi family epitomizes the American Dream, working hard and saving their money.

Pat Raynor

Pat Raynor, a lifelong hairstylist, became interested in working from home after her husband Harold passed away in 2009. But under Nashville’s ban on home-based businesses, Pat was forced to shut down her home hair salon.

Hilda Brucker

Hilda Brucker was sitting at home one day working her job as a freelance writer. The phone rang, she answered, and was told by a hostile voice that if she didn’t come down to the courthouse at once she would be given a failure to appear violation. She hastily complied. When she got there, she found out that the city had issued a citation, although it had never told her about it. She later learned the citation stated she was charged with (1) “Rotted wood on house and chipping paint on fascia boards”;  (2) “High weeds in backyard and ivy on tree and vines on house”;  and (3) “Driveway in a state of disrepair.” Not knowing what to do, Hilda pled guilty to the driveway charge, while the other two were dismissed. She paid a fine of $100 and was sentenced to six months probation, where she had to report to a probation officer, avoid alcoholic intoxication, and cooperate “with code enforcement upon request.” She later hired an attorney who filed a motion to vacate her sentence, but the motion was continued several times, eventually being granted only after her six-month probation would have already ended. She also obtained a home equity line of credit in case she needed to pay for any of the fixes that the city nebulously demanded.

Doug and Mary Ketchum

Doug and Mary Ketchum moved to Tennessee to purchase an historic liquor store that would let them take care of their 32-year-old daughter, Stacie, who suffers from cerebral palsy. But they can’t get a liquor license, thanks to the state’s strict residency requirements.

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.