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Lawsuit Challenges Indiana's Ban on Using Online Eye Tests to Obtain Prescriptions

April 11, 2019

Arizona Becomes First State to Broadly Recognize Out-of-State Licenses

April 10, 2019

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

North Dakota Eliminates Licenses for Braiding Hair and Threading Eyebrows

North Dakota became the latest state to untangle natural hair braiders and eyebrow threaders from a thicket of licensing red tape thanks to a bill signed late yesterday by Gov. Doug Burgum. Before the law was signed, threaders could only work in North Dakota if they became licensed estheticians, a credential that requires a minimum…

Lancaster Newspaper Teams Up With National Law Firm to Make Forfeiture Records Public

Pennsylvanians have the right to know about the property that local law enforcement takes and how it spends the proceeds

Lancaster, Pa.—The Lancaster County District Attorney uses civil forfeiture to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other property each year. Under Pennsylvania law, he is able to spend the proceeds with few restrictions. Yet detailed information about what property is taken and how the proceeds are spent is secret. Now, reporter Carter…

Lawsuit Challenges Indiana’s Ban on Using Online Eye Tests to Obtain Prescriptions

Arlington, Va.—Can the government restrict access to innovative health care technology in order to prop up an outdated business model? A new lawsuit filed yesterday in Marion Superior Court seeks to answer that question. The lawsuit, filed by health care technology company Visibly and the Institute for Justice (IJ), challenges Indiana’s ban on doctors using…

Arizona Becomes First State to Broadly Recognize Out-of-State Licenses

Thanks to a major reform signed earlier today by Gov. Doug Ducey, Arizona became the first state in the nation to universally recognize out-of-state licenses. Under the new law (HB 2569), Arizona will generally issue a license to new residents who were licensed for at least one year in another state, so long as their…

New Findings: Pipeline Companies Flout Law Nationwide, Take Land Without First Paying Property Owners

In more than 200 Documented Examples from Across the U.S., Lower Courts Rubber Stamp Such Abuses

Case Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court Seeks to End this Abuse of Eminent Domain Arlington, Va.—In hundreds of documented examples from across the nation, powerful pipeline companies have convinced the courts to ignore the law and give these private companies other people’s land without first paying the owners any compensation, as required under federal law.…

Dairy Farmer Wins First Round in Fight to Say Skim Milk is Skim Milk

Harrisburg, Pa.—A federal judge in Pennsylvania denied the Food and Drug Administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit about whether additive-free skim milk can be labeled and sold as “skim milk.” Current FDA regulations require farmers to add synthetic vitamins into skim milk before sale. Maryland dairy farmer Randy Sowers wants to sell all-natural skim milk…

Norco Homeowner Fights Back With Lawsuit After City Attempts To Take His Home

Institute for Justice challenges for-profit law firm’s attempt to collect more than $60,000 in attorneys’ fees after it lost in court

Two years ago, Norco homeowner Ron Mugar received a notice indicating he had violated the city’s housing code. Ron had admittedly allowed his home and backyard to become cluttered with hobby machinery. But this time, instead of fining him or asking him to bring his property up to code, the city’s private, for-profit prosecutors—lawyers with…

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.
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

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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

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.

Captain Matthew Hight

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.

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.

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.

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.

Carter Walker

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.

Jim Roos

St. Louis tried to take Jim Roos’ property through eminent domain. Jim protested by painting a giant sign on one of his buildings. The city then tried to censor him.

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.

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.

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.

David and Ellen Keith

David and Ellen Keith have lived in Pleasant Ridge since the 1970s, and a daughter, a granddaughter and even two great-grandchildren live next door. But if forced out, they will be left nearly destitute in their retirement.

Lisa Howard

Lisa 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.

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.

Heather Coffy

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

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.

Matt & Sue Dery

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.”

Ash Patel

Ash Patel moved to Texas from India to pursue his American Dream of opening up an eyebrow threading salon. But in 2009, Texas demanded that eyebrow threaders obtain an expensive cosmetology license—even though beauty schools teach absolutely nothing about eyebrow threading. Ash shut down his successful business to avoid paying $2,000 in fines. He teamed up with the Institute for Justice to vindicate his rights. Six years later, IJ scored one of its most important economic liberty victories when the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had violated the Texas Constitution by ordering threaders to obtain 750 hours of conventional cosmetology training. Threaders all over Texas are now free to work without having to obtain a government-issued license.

Tracy McGlothian

Tracy is an experienced sewer who teaches students how to sew as a hobby, but under Virginia law, she’s not allowed to teach students how to earn a living with sewing.

Colon Health Centers for America

Dr. Mark Baumel, of Colon Health Centers for America, wants to increase the rate of screening for colon cancers. But when Dr. Baumel and his partners sought Virginia’s permission to buy new CT scanners, it denied them a “certificate of need.”

Mike Warfield

Fed up with Charleston’s endless series of trivial questions, Mike is standing up for his First Amendment right to talk to paying customers without first getting the government’s permission.

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.

Florence and Derrick Doyle

Florence and Derrick would like their children to attend a Catholic high school in Aurora, Colo. But paying tuition for both children to attend Regis would be a substantial financial burden, so scholarships by Douglas County’s school choice program would help defray costs.

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.

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.”

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.

Martha Rabello

Martha is a stay-at-home mom with two sons, a 5-year old and a 2-year old. She has baked her whole life and is professionally trained. Martha is Brazilian and lived in Brazil for 25 years, and she would like to start a home business focusing on Brazilian-inspired cookies.

Robin Lamp

Robin Lamp is a single parent whose two daughters attend Christian academy in Georgia.

Russ Caswell

Russ Caswell and his family have owned and operated the Motel Caswell in Tewksbury, Mass., for two generations. The Caswells nearly had their property taken from them by local and federal law enforcement officials through a process known as civil forfeiture.

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.

Mats Järlström

Mats Järlström is a Swedish-born electronics engineer and has the equivalent of a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. After his wife received a ticket based on a red-light camera in Beaverton, Oregon, Mats began criticizing the math behind red-light cameras. But Oregon’s engineer-licensing board considered Mats’ traffic-light critiques to be the unlicensed practice of engineering and fined him $500.

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.

Carl and Joy Gamble

Norwood, Ohio wanted to bulldoze Carl and Joy’s home of more than three decades to make way for a private developer.

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.”

Dave and Amy Carson

Dave and Amy Carson are residents of Glenburn, Maine and have sent their daughter, Olivia, now a sophomore, to Bangor Christian Schools. But because Olivia’s school is religious, Glenburn is prohibited from paying for Olivia’s tuition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Kazazi Family

Ron Mugar

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.

Dan Burgess

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

Anubis and Ramses Avalos

Ron Hines

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

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.

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.

Lancaster, PA Newspaper Teams Up With IJ to Make Forfeiture Records Public

Institute for Justice

Homepage

Lawsuit Challenges Indiana's Ban on Using Online Eye Tests to Obtain Prescriptions

Arizona Becomes First State to Broadly Recognize Out-of-State Licenses

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

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | April 11, 2019

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | April 11, 2019

Pennsylvanians have the right to know about the property that local law enforcement takes and how it spends the proceeds

Matt Powers | Press Release | April 11, 2019

Nick Sibilla | Press Release | April 10, 2019

John Kramer | Press Release | April 8, 2019

In more than 200 Documented Examples from Across the U.S., Lower Courts Rubber Stamp Such Abuses

Andrew Wimer | Press Release | April 4, 2019

Conor Beck | Press Release | April 2, 2019

Institute for Justice challenges for-profit law firm’s attempt to collect more than $60,000 in attorneys’ fees after it lost in 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

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