IJ Launches Into 2025

A quick skim of this issue of Liberty & Law makes clear that IJ finished off 2024 on a hot streak. We won. A lot. And when we win a lot of cases like that, it brings up an obvious question: “What’s next?”

What’s next is even more. In the few months since the last issue of this magazine, we haven’t just won cases. We’ve filed 10 more—so many that we can’t possibly devote an article to each one of them. You’ll see more about these new cases in the coming months. But, for now, here’s a preview.

In this issue, you’ve already read about Awa Diagne, the Georgia hair braider whose town refused to let her open her business because it might compete with an existing salon the city council liked better. And, in 2025, you’ll hear about how the city council in Kalispell, Montana, arbitrarily stripped a nonprofit homeless shelter of its property—stymieing a private solution to a public need. And, if all goes according to plan, you’ll hear how IJ stopped both cities in their tracks.

There’s more. You’ll read about our new First Amendment lawsuit designed to vindicate the rights of civil rights attorneys to publicly criticize the government. (That one, admittedly, strikes close to home for us.) And also about a Georgia town where local officials can destroy your home if it’s a “nuisance”—and where a “nuisance” is anything the mayor says it is.

You’ll read about cases that expand on long-running IJ campaigns to change the law. Our efforts to roll back laws that make it harder for people with long-ago criminal convictions to get occupational licenses have led to a new challenge to onerous licensing restrictions in Texas. Our efforts to stop local elected officials from arresting people who criticize them prompted our latest suit against Alabama officials who engineered the arrest of four people—including a local reporter—who spoke out against a favored government employee.

And we’re not done. (If you know anything about IJ at this point, it’s that we’re never done.) Take the California county where housing costs are among the highest in the nation and local officials fined our clients exorbitant amounts for the crime of letting a long-term employee’s family live on their property. IJ was there to file suit. Or take the Pennsylvania state agency that claims the power to go anywhere on private property to investigate illegal fishing—even if “anywhere” is outside the bathroom window while your wife takes a bath. IJ was ready there, too. Local officials who arrested a woman on a warrant issued for another person—who has a different name and is a good 20 years younger—and then didn’t bother checking whether they had the right person for the next three days while the woman languished in jail? You get the picture.

In 2025, we’ll bring you updates on each of these cases, and we’ll file still more. Because when the government abuses its power, IJ stands ready to fight back. And we can’t wait to tell you what happens next.

Robert McNamara is IJ’s deputy litigation director.