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- Mujer de Miami apela a la Corte Suprema para recuperar cada dólar confiscado injustificadamente por agentes federales
- New Jersey Governor Signs New Conviction Requirement for Civil Forfeiture
- Institute for Justice Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hold Government Officials Accountable For Destroying Idaho Home with Grenades
- Pittsburgh Retiree Sues Federal Government to Get His Life Savings Back
- Pottstown Renters Score Major Win In Challenge To Unconstitutional Rental Inspections
- New Jersey Assembly Passes Transparency Bill for Police Seizures
- Pennsylvania Women Denied the Right to Work Win First Round in Suit Against the Pennsylvania Cosmetology Board
Andrew Wimer | Press Release | January 21, 2020
Mujer de Miami apela a la Corte Suprema para recuperar cada dólar confiscado injustificadamente por agentes federales
Miladis Salgado luchó con éxito para recuperar el dinero de la quinceañera de su hija, pero ahora el gobierno se niega a pagar los honorarios de su abogado
MIAMI—El 11 de mayo de 2015, Miladis Salgado regresó a su casa y descubrió que su vida tuvo un giro inesperado. Mientras ella estaba trabajando, la policía ingresó a su casa y confiscó sus ahorros de toda la vida—$15.000 en efectivo que ella estaba ahorrando para la quinceañera de su hija—a partir de información de…
Nick Sibilla | Press Release | January 21, 2020
Late yesterday, Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill (A4970) that will require a criminal conviction before civil forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, civil forfeiture typically allows the government to take and keep property without charging anyone with a crime. Thanks to the governor’s signature, New Jersey is now the 16th state with a conviction prerequisite to…
J. Justin Wilson | Press Release | January 16, 2020
Institute for Justice Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hold Government Officials Accountable For Destroying Idaho Home with Grenades
After police had a ten-hour standoff with an empty house—eventually destroying everything inside—a court ruled there wasn’t anything they could do about it. Now the Institute for Justice is launching a new project to ask the courts to reexamine doctrines giving government officials broad immunity from accountability
If you tell police they can go into your home, does that mean they can also legally stand outside and pepper it with shotgun-fired tear gas grenades—destroying everything inside? That is the question asked by a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States filed today by the Institute for Justice (IJ) on behalf…
Andrew Wimer | Press Release | January 15, 2020
Pittsburgh Retiree Sues Federal Government to Get His Life Savings Back
DEA seized more than $82,000 from retiree’s daughter as she traveled through the Pittsburgh airport
PITTSBURGH—Terry Rolin’s life savings of $82,373 were seized by the federal government even though he has not been charged with any crime. In fact, his daughter was doing something completely legal—flying domestically with cash—when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized the money in August 2019 at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Today, Terry and his daughter…
Conor Beck | Press Release | January 6, 2020
Pottstown Renters Score Major Win In Challenge To Unconstitutional Rental Inspections
Pottstown Renters Score Major Win In Challenge To Unconstitutional Rental Inspections
Pottstown, Penn.—This morning, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued an opinion vacating and remanding a lower court’s ruling in favor of Pottstown in a lawsuit challenging the borough’s rental inspection ordinance. This law allows the borough to enter residents’ homes without cause and without the residents’ consent. The Court also reversed the trial court’s orders…
Nick Sibilla | Press Release | December 17, 2019
The New Jersey Assembly unanimously passed a bill late Monday that would shine a light on “civil forfeiture,” which lets law enforcement seize property without ever charging the owner with a crime. In New Jersey, once property is forfeited, the government can then keep up to 100% of the proceeds, creating a perverse incentive to…
Andrew Wimer | Press Release | December 9, 2019
PHILADELPHIA—Today, a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania denied the Cosmetology Board’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two Philadelphia-area women who want to end an unconstitutional requirement that stands in the way of their careers. The Board used Courtney Haveman’s and Amanda Spillane’s past legal problems to deny them the right…
Our Issues
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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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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.
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Our Research
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October 24, 2019 | Strategic Research
The Price of Taxation by Citation
Case Studies of Three Georgia Cities That Rely Heavily on Fines and Fees
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June 7, 2019 | Strategic Research
Fighting Crime or Raising Revenue?
Testing Opposing Views of Forfeiture
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.
Carter Walker
Carter Walker is a reporter covering the county government for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspaper. To shine a light on forfeiture spending by the Lancaster County DA, he filed a request, which was denied. Carter appealed to Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records and won, but now the DA is fighting in court to keep this information secret.
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.
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.
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.
Troy and Angela Nelson
Troy and Angela Nelson operate a small family farm in Palermo, Maine. They have two children, Alicia, who attends a nonreligious school, and Royce, who attends Temple Academy, a private, Christian school. Palermo won’t pay for Royce’s tuition, simply because he attends a religious school, even though its pays tuition for Alicia.
Gajendra Singh
Dr. Gajendra Singh opened Forsyth Imaging Center in 2017 to provide X-rays, ultrasounds, MRI scans, and other services at affordable prices. But Dr. Singh is stymied by North Carolina’s “certificate of need” laws.
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.
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.
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.
Mary Jackson
Mary is a certified lactation consultation with nearly three decades of experience, including teaching at Emory and Morehouse. But thanks to a new license in Georgia, Mary can no longer work in her current position helping women and children with hands-on breastfeeding advice.
Steve Cooksey
This caveman blogger fought for free speech and Internet freedom.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Norys Hernandez
Norys Hernandez co-owns a home in North Philadelphia with her sister, who resides there. Norys has never been in trouble with the law. But her home was seized after her nephew was caught selling a small amount of drugs outside the home.
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.
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.
Robert and Dorice Pierce
Robert and Dorice Pierce have rented from Josefina Lozano since June 2000 and are now fighting against rental inspections in Zion, Illinois.
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.
David Vocatura
Vocatura’s Bakery was founded in 1919, almost one hundred years ago, and has been owned and operated by three generations of the Vocatura family. Claiming the owners violated so-called “structuring” laws by depositing cash in the bakery’s bank account in amounts less than $10,000, the IRS seized more than $68,000 from the family.
Michele Simon
Michele Simon is the executive director of the Plant Based Foods Association, a trade group representing the nation’s leading plant-based foods companies. At the behest of the meat lobby, Mississippi banned food companies making plant-based meat alternatives from using any meat product terms on their labels, a law that harms the Association’s members.
Dan Burgess
IJ client Dan Burgess drives for ridesharing companies uberX, Sidecar and Lyft and is fighting to defend his economic liberty.
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.
Ted and Lauren Dzierzbicki
IJ clients Ted and Lauren Dzierzbicki wonder if the government can arbitrarily restrict the property rights of some individuals but not others.
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.”
Alan and Judy Gillis
Alan and Judy Gillis live in Orrington, Maine and send their youngest daughter, Isabella, currently a junior to Bangor Christian Schools. But because Alan and Judy have chosen a religious school for their daughter, Maine prohibits the town from paying Isabella’s tuition to Bangor Christian Schools.
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.
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.
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.
Visibly
Visibly is a Chicago-based internet startup that offers consumers a simple promise: Get a new prescription for glasses or contacts from the comfort of your own home. In most states, Visibly’s technology allows doctors to provide faster and better service to more people—but not in South Carolina.
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.
Veronica Walker-Davis and Jerome Davis
In May 2018, Jerome Davis and Veronica Walker-Davis took their family car to a repair shop. But a shop employee took their car on a joyride, police arrested them for driving on a revoked license, and impounded the car. When Veronica and Jerome went to get their car, they were told that it was gone. The city had already disposed of it; either selling it, scrapping it, or keeping it for police use.
Anthonia Nwaorie
A registered nurse and grandmother from Katy, Texas, Anthonia had over $40,000 in cash seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She was heading to Nigeria and planned to use the money to help family and to built a new medical clinic. Anthonia is now the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against CBP’s policies of seizing cash and demanding owners waive away their constitutional rights to recover their money.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Markela Sourovelis
In May 2014, Philadelphia police showed up unannounced at Markela’s home and tried to seize the home through civil forfeiture because her son had been caught selling a small amount of drugs outside the home. After a year of uncertainty, the city agreed to stop seizing people’s homes without warning and forcing people to give up their constitutional rights and kick out family members. Even better—Markela’s son was allowed back home.
Ashley N'Dakpri
At 16, Ashley began braiding hair for money and now manages the Afro Touch salon in Louisiana. Although there is no shortage of capable braiders, they are all unlicensed, and the Board’s licensing requirements prevent Ashley from hiring unlicensed braiders.
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.
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.
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.
Ricardo Quintanilla
Ricardo Quintanilla operates Tacos el Regio but San Antonio’s vending restrictions make it difficult to operate.
Bill Campbell
Bill Campbell is a landlord in Granite City, Illinois. He joined his tenants in filing a lawsuit to shutdown the city’s compulsory-evictions law.
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Last modified: January 1, 2020