Private Property Cases
4th Amendment Project | Economic Liberty | Private Property
FinCEN Border Cash Surveillance
Esperanza Gomez and Arnoldo Gonzalez, Jr. run small businesses near the U.S.-Mexico border that provide everyday, small-dollar financial services—often for customers without bank accounts. In San Diego, Esperanza helps customers cash checks (often to buy…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property | SWAT Destruction
North Carolina SWAT Destruction
A North Carolina family is seeking to hold SWAT teams accountable for raiding the wrong home in April 2024.
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Bowers v. Oneida County Industrial Development Agency
Can the government take your property just to hand it over to your business competitor? That is the question New York developer Bryan Bowers is asking the United States Supreme Court after New York’s courts…
4th Amendment Project | Private Property
Norfolk, VA Camera Surveillance
Norfolk, Virginia has installed more than 170 cameras across the city that watch drivers' every movement. Now, two Norfolk-area residents have teamed up with the Institute for Justice to file a federal lawsuit challenging the…
Private Property | Private Solutions to Public Problems | Right to Shelter | Zoning Justice Project
Flathead Warming Center
The Flathead Warming Center—an emergency shelter in Kalispell, Montana—suffered a cruel blow as winter approaches. On September 16, 2024, the Kalispell City Council voted 6-3 to revoke the Warming Center’s permit, even though it has…
Private Property | SWAT Destruction
Martin v. United States
FBI agents raided the wrong home in suburban Atlanta. Now the federal government refuses to compensate the victims even though Congress passed a law permitting suits for damages caused by federal employees.
4th Amendment Project | Open Fields Doctrine | Private Property
Pennsylvania Fish Cops
Tim and Stephanie Thomas purchased their cabin on Butler Lake in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, in 2014. In 2022, after Stephanie was diagnosed with stage four cancer, it also became a sanctuary for her to rest and…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Florida Mistaken Identity Arrest
An innocent Texas woman was arrested in a case of mistaken identity while getting off a cruise in 2022. Now, she's suing Broward County for the unconstitutional arrest.
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property
Georgia Home Demolition
Eric Arnold stood in front of his property in Macon-Bibb County, Georgia, shaking in shock and disbelief. The house he had been painstakingly fixing up for months—the house he poured hours of work and thousands…
Housing Abundance and Affordability | Private Property | Private Solutions to Public Problems | Zoning Justice Project
Santa Clara 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
Indiana Parcel Forfeiture
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
Martinez v. High
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
Oklahoma Takings
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 | SWAT Destruction
Jimerson v. Lewis – Texas Wrong House Raid
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
Louisiana Open Fields
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 Retaliation
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 Green Cemetery
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
South Bend SWAT Destruction
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
Brentwood Blight
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
Slaybaugh SWAT Appeal
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 Genetic Privacy
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
Corporal Punishment Cert Petition
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
Ocean Springs Blight
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
US Private Vaults Missing Property
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…
ProCraft Masonry Administrative Appeal
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
Mohamud v. Weyker
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 Overdetention
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
Los Angeles SWAT Destruction
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…