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Piano Man Wins Round Two In Atlantic City Eminent Domain Fight

February 15, 2019

Judge Orders Fort Pierce to Stop Enforcing Food Truck Ban

February 22, 2019

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

Judge Orders Fort Pierce to Stop Enforcing Unconstitutional Food Truck Ban

Law prohibits food trucks from operating within 500 feet of restaurants; one of the most restrictive bans in the nation

Today, a Florida circuit court ruled that Fort Pierce cannot enforce its unconstitutional ban on food trucks operating within 500 feet of another establishment that sells food. Food truck owners Benny Diaz and Brian Peffer filed a lawsuit against the city for its food truck law with the Institute for Justice (IJ) for violating their…

Leonia Homeowners and Businesses Form Group to Stop Borough’s “Condemnation Redevelopment Study”

A small North Jersey community joins together to stop borough officials from authorizing eminent domain for private development

Leonia, N.J.—Today, residents, small-business owners and supporters in Leonia, New Jersey, announced the formation of Leonia United Against Eminent Domain Abuse (“Leonia United”). The new group is dedicated to stopping the abuse of eminent domain—the government’s power to take private property—which would be authorized as part of the borough’s current “condemnation redevelopment study” of their…

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Unanimously That States Cannot Impose Excessive Fines

Ruling Requires Cities and States—Not Just the Federal Government— To Abide by the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause

In an historic ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning held that the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment protects Americans not just against the federal government, but against states and local authorities too. No matter which state you live in, every level of government must now abide by the federal Constitution’s guarantee that…

Piano Man Wins Round Two In Atlantic City Eminent Domain Fight

New Jersey Appellate Court Rejects State Agency’s Land Speculation And Effort to Condemn Atlantic City Piano Tuner’s Longtime Family Home

ARLINGTON, VA—Atlantic City property owner Charlie Birnbaum, whose longtime family home was targeted for eminent domain abuse, gets to stay put. So ruled the New Jersey Appellate Division in a 29-page published ruling it issued today. The Atlantic City fixture and longtime piano tuner won a landmark victory for property rights today when the court…

New Bill Would End Civil Forfeiture in South Carolina

At a press conference Wednesday, South Carolina lawmakers announced a bill that would abolish civil forfeiture. Should the bill pass, South Carolina would join just three other states—Nebraska, New Mexico, and North Carolina—that have ended this abusive police practice. Under civil forfeiture laws, the government can permanently confiscate cash, cars, even homes, without ever filing…

Driver’s License Revocation Law Drives Tennesseans Into an Irrational Cycle of Debt and Punishment

Institute for Justice and Fines and Fees Justice Center Partner to Support Legal Challenge at Federal Appeals Court

The state of Tennessee revokes the driver’s license of any person who fails to pay fines, costs, and litigation taxes associated with a criminal conviction for a year or more. It does this even when the defendant is too poor to pay. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee struck down the…

IJ to FDA: Milk Doesn’t Have to Come From Cows to Be Called Milk

Late last week, the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed an official comment with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opposing the agency’s suggestion that non-dairy milks should be banned from using the word “milk” on their labels. “If a consumer is confused about the source of a product labeled ‘almond milk,’ then he has bigger…

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 »

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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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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

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.”

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.

Michelle Rock

Since 2014, Michelle has owned and operated her two food trucks in and around Wilmington, North Carolina: Momma Rock’s Dessert Truck specializes in event catering while T’Geaux Boys—a nod to Michelle’s Louisiana roots—operates as a more traditional food truck.

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.

Janice Craig

Janice received a $215 fine for “failure to obey traffic signs or control” in Doraville, Georgia. If she can, Janice now goes out of her way to avoid Doraville.

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.

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.

Lij Shaw

Elijah “Lij” Shaw is a single father and lifelong record producer and recorded nationally renowned, Grammy Award-winning performers like Adele, John Oates, Jack White and Wilco. After his daughter was born, Lij decided to convert his garage into a soundproofed recording studio, which he used without any complaints for over a decade. But now Nashville is threatening to destroy Lij’s investment and uproot him from his neighborhood.

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.

Archdiocese of Newark

The Archdiocese of Newark is one of the largest in terms of population in the U.S., with nearly 1.3 million Catholics and 219 parishes. The Archdiocese is fighting a New Jersey law that makes it a crime to sell monuments, such as headstones, to their parishioners.

Dan Leger

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.

Central Radio Company

Bob Wilson is blocked by the city of Norfolk, Va., from displaying a banner protesting eminent domain abuse outside his business, Central Radio Company.

Jeff Thornton

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.

Sung Cho

Sung Cho owns and operates Super Laundromat and Drycleaners, one of the largest laundromats in Manhattan. Sung could be evicted, and his business closed, simply because his business was the site of a crime. The identity of the criminals was beside the point.

Isis Brantley

For decades, Isis Brantley has fought for her right to braid hair and to pass on her knowledge to others. She successfully sued the state of Texas after it attempted to force her to turn her braiding school into a barber college.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

Mildred Bryant

Mildred Bryant is 84 years old and living out her golden years in the home she’s owned for 46 years in Pagedale, Missouri. But she faces a real threat of tickets, fines, and imprisonment from the town.

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.

Wendy Robin

Wendy trained as a makeup artist in Hollywood and has over 20 years of experience working with celebrities. But in Nevada, teaching others how to apply makeup without a government-issued license can subject you to up to $2,000 in fines.

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.

Thomas Halsnik

IJ client Thomas Halsnick is a limousine driver and entrepreneur who is required to charge consumers $50 a ride—no matter how short the ride—even though he want to charge less.

Heather Kokesch Del Castillo

Heather Kokesch Del Castillo is a health coach in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, who joined with the Institute for Justice to defend her First Amendment right to give dietary advice.

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.

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.

John Rinaldi

When John tried to expand his cab business to Bowling Green, he was stymied by a city law that limited the number of taxis allowed in the city to only 16. Less than two months after he filed a lawsuit, Bowling Green repealed the cap.

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.

Shelia Champion

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

Jeffrey, Richard and Mitch Hirsch

Brothers Jeffrey, Richard and Mitch Hirsch owned Bi-County Distributors Inc., a small distribution business in Long Island, N.Y. The IRS used a legal process called civil forfeiture to seize their entire bank account—more than $446,000—even though they had done nothing wrong. After the brothers filed a lawsuit, the IRS returned their hard-earned cash.

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.

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.

Matt & Sue Dery

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.

Christos and Markela Sourovelis

Chris and Markela Sourovelis worked their whole lives to build a home for their family. Officials in Philadelphia then tried to use civil forfeiture to take it all away, even though Chris and Markela did nothing wrong.

Harley Bruce

Harley Bruce owns Poor Piggy’s BBQ & Catering, which was the first food truck in Wilmington and serves up award-winning North Carolina barbecue.

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.

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 Craven

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

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.”

Bob Smith

Bob Smith has been professionally shoeing horses since 1974 and founded Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School (PCHS) in Plymouth, California to pass his skills on to another generation of farriers. But California threatened to shut him down, because Bob was admitting students to his horseshoeing school who hadn’t first graduated from high school or passed an equivalent government-approved exam.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Unanimously That States Cannot Impose Excessive Fines.

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Piano Man Wins Round Two In Atlantic City Eminent Domain Fight

Judge Orders Fort Pierce to Stop Enforcing Food Truck Ban

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

Conor Beck | Press Release | February 22, 2019

Law prohibits food trucks from operating within 500 feet of restaurants; one of the most restrictive bans in the nation

Andrew Meleta | Press Release | February 20, 2019

A small North Jersey community joins together to stop borough officials from authorizing eminent domain for private development

John Kramer | Press Release | February 20, 2019

Ruling Requires Cities and States—Not Just the Federal Government— To Abide by the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause

John Kramer | Press Release | February 15, 2019

New Jersey Appellate Court Rejects State Agency’s Land Speculation And Effort to Condemn Atlantic City Piano Tuner’s Longtime Family Home

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | February 14, 2019

J. Justin Wilson | Press Release | January 28, 2019

Institute for Justice and Fines and Fees Justice Center Partner to Support Legal Challenge at Federal Appeals Court

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | January 28, 2019

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

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