Private Property Cases
Housing Abundance and Affordability | Private Property | Private Solutions to Public Problems | Zoning Justice Project
Santa Clara Winery Sues to End Unconstitutional Zoning Code Fines
Michael and Kellie Ballard provided safe, affordable housing for their long-time employee and his family at the Ballards’ historic vineyard and winery in Santa Clara County, California. For that good deed, the Ballards have been…
Private Property | Zoning Justice Project
South Fulton Protectionist Zoning
In America, the government doesn’t get to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. Businesses compete, and the consumer ultimately decides which services or products they want. The idea that anyone can open a storefront…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Family Jewelry Business Fights Back to End Predatory Civil Forfeitures at Indianapolis FedEx Hub
Henry and Minh Cheng, who run a wholesale jewelry business, are fighting Indiana to keep money a customer sent them through FedEx. Indiana police seized the money and prosecutors are trying to take it through…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
New petition asks Supreme Court to let woman’s suit against her abuser’s enabler move forward after nearly a decade in court.
Desiree Martinez bravely reported to the police the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her boyfriend, Kyle Pennington. But Pennington was a police officer, and came from a family of officers. Instead of…
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property
Courts Say City Owes Her Over $200,000; But Now She Has to Sue Again to Get Paid
Courts say Okay, Oklahoma owes Melisa Robinson for damaging her property. But the city won't pay. That violates her Fifth Amendment right to just compensation.
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Murphy v. Schmitt
Have you ever heard of someone being arrested and sent to jail for walking on the wrong side of the road? Probably not — because police officers never, or almost never, arrest people for such…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Family seeks to hold officer accountable after he led SWAT raid at wrong house
Everyone who visits a home for the first time—including delivery drivers, plumbers, and Girl Scouts—knows that you have to make sure you have the right address before barging in. Somehow, Waxahachie Police Department (WPD) Lieutenant…
4th Amendment Project | Open Fields Doctrine | Private Property
Lawsuit challenges warrantless searches of land
Louisiana game wardens have entered Tom Manuel's land uninvited and without a warrant multiple times. He's asking courts to follow the Louisiana Constitution and protect private property from unreasonable searches.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | First Amendment Retaliation | Immunity and Accountability | Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property
Virginia food truck owners file federal lawsuit after raging town councilmember damaged truck, town council repeatedly harassed them
Theslet Benoir and Clemene Bastien are a married couple that immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 2005. They received asylum, settled in Parksley, Virginia, and opened a brick-and-mortar store that caters to the…
Economic Liberty | Private Property | Small and Home-Based Business | Zoning Justice Project
Michigan Couple File Lawsuit Against Brooks Township For Violating Michigan Constitutional Right To Open Business
Americans want more choice for one of the last and most important decisions they will ever make: where to be buried. Peter and Annica Quakenbush want to provide fellow Michiganders with more choice by opening…
Immunity and Accountability | Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property | SWAT Destruction
A Police Raid Wrecked Her Home; Now a South Bend Mom Fights for Compensation
In South Bend, a SWAT team raided the wrong home, leaving a single mom with thousands of dollars in damage not covered by insurance. She is suing for compensation.
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Small Businesses Sue St. Louis Suburb to Save Their Locations
A St. Louis suburb is trying to pave the way for a massive redevelopment by calling well-kept loved family businesses.
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property | SWAT Destruction
Tennessee Couple Fights for Compensation After SWAT Team Destroys Their Home
Who pays when the government destroys private property for a public purpose, such as getting a fugitive off the streets? The answer should be clear: if the government breaks it, the government buys it. That’s…
4th Amendment Project | Private Property
New Jersey Parents File Federal Class Action Lawsuit Challenging State’s Secret Retention of Newborn Blood for 23 Years
Like all new mothers, New Jersey residents Hannah Lovaglio and Erica Jedynak each experienced the usual emotional whirlwind during their pregnancies. They had attended prenatal classes, meticulously planned their nurseries, and devoured books on parenting.
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Mother asks Supreme Court to hear case challenging immunity for school officials who abused her daughter
A New Orleans-area mother of a young girl is asking the United States Supreme Court to hear her case challenging a lower court’s decision to shield all violence by public-school officials from constitutional review. In…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Home and business owners only found out their properties were branded as “slum or blighted” long after the time to legally challenge the label in state court passed
Ocean Springs, Mississippi declared properties in parts of the city blighted slums in a secretive process. Now, property owners are suing to protect their homes, businesses, and a church.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
New lawsuits seek return of coins and cash seized in 2021 FBI raid
After giving up on using civil forfeiture to claim their safe deposit boxes, the FBI did not return all of Don, Jeni, and Michael's property. They are suing to get their missing coins and cash…
Lawsuit from Oklahoma Small Business Challenges Administrative Courts Handing Down Ruinous Fines
Danny Barbee and his wife Diana together run ProCraft Masonry, LLC, a small masonry company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Danny is a fourth-generation bricklayer and Diana has worked at ProCraft since its founding in 2010. Their…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Task-Force Immunity and Accountability
Can a local police offifcer launder her lies and deceit through a state-federal task force to hide behind absolute federal immunity? IJ doesn’t think so, but with the help of the federal government, St. Paul…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Louisiana Inmate Held 525 Days Past His Release Seeks Justice
Percy Taylor was kept in a Louisiana prison 525 days past his release date. He is not alone in being held beyond his sentence in a Louisiana detention facility. In January 2023, the U.S. Department…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property | SWAT Destruction
Innocent Small Business Owner Seeks Compensation After Shop Destroyed by SWAT Team
For thirty years, Carlos Pena ran a print shop in North Hollywood. His world was turned upside down, however, in August 2022, when a fugitive forced his way into Carlos’s shop and barricaded himself inside…
4th Amendment Project | Open Fields Doctrine | Private Property
The government can’t steal your cameras and use them to spy on you
Josh Highlander’s son is afraid of the boogeyman. While playing with his mother in the yard, their basketball rolled toward the woods. She was shocked to see a figure standing in their woods wearing a…
4th Amendment Project | Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Lawsuit seeks to hold law enforcement accountable for violating Texan’s constitutional rights
Alek Schott partnered with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to announce a federal lawsuit against Bexar County deputies for illegally stopping him for a traffic violation that he didn’t commit, and then using the stop…
Fines and Fees | Private Property
Lawsuit Challenges Department of Labor’s Use of Administrative Law Judges to Hand Down Ruinous Fines
When the Department of Labor decided to fine Chuck Saine tens of thousands of dollars, Chuck did not get to make his case to a jury of his peers—or even a real federal judge. Instead,…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
When the government seizes property from people without justification, and they have to spend money to get their property back, they deserve to be made whole.
Brian Moore fought to get his property back from the federal government and he won. In 2021, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents seized $8,500 in cash from him at Atlanta’s airport while he was waiting…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Group of Property Owners Team Up to Fight Back Against Private Railroad’s Attempt to Take Their Property
A group of property owners in Sparta, Georgia has teamed up to fight back against a private railroad's attempt to take their land.
Private Property | Private Solutions to Public Problems | Zoning Justice Project
Winston-Salem Tries to Control Who Can Visit Private Property
Kimberly Dunckel and her family founded Fairytale Farm Animal Sanctuary to give neglected and special-needs farm animals a “happily ever after.” Their 3.3-acre property provides a place where the public could learn from and…
DeVillier v. Texas
Supreme Court Argument Victory! On April 16th, the Supreme Court vacated the Fifth Circuit decision and ruled the Devillier family can sue Texas for flooding caused by the state. Resources Brief for Petitioners…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Class Action Challenges FBI’s “Take Now, Explain Never” Forfeitures
Linda Martin's home savings were seized by the FBI. She received a confusing forfeiture notice that didn't clearly say what she did wrong for the government to want to take her money.
First Amendment | Sign Codes | Small and Home-Based Business | Zoning Justice Project
High school art class painted donut mural for bakery, town demands their work be painted over
Leavitt's Country Bakery Owner Sean Young filed a federal lawsuit against the town of Conway, after town officials demanded he paint over a mural that was created by local high school students last summer.