Economic Liberty Cases
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Gray v. Maine Dept. of Public Safety
Joshua Gray, a private investigator, wanted to expand his business into his home state of Maine. In violation of his First Amendment rights, the state denied his request for a license, because he has criticized…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
North Carolina Engineering Speech
Wayne Nutt is a retired engineer who still talks about engineering and wanted to testify as an expert witness in a case that involved engineering issues. The state of North Carolina argued Wayne’s testimony was…
Tarpon Springs Food Trucks
Tarpon Springs, Florida bans food trucks from operating in the downtown area, unless the owner also has a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The owners of one food truck are working with IJ to fight for their right…
Economic Liberty | Eminent Domain | Private Property
Brinkmann, et al. v. Town of Southold, New York
The Brinkmann family owns hardware stores in Long Island and purchased property with the hope of opening a new store. The town now wants to take the land through eminent domain, simply because they don’t…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Brokamp v. James — New York Teletherapy
Elizabeth Brokamp uses talk therapy to help people improve their lives. When one of her clients relocated to New York she was able to continue speaking with the client online. She’s licensed in Virginia, where…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing
360 Virtual Drone Services LLC v. Ritter
Michael Jones uses his drone to take photos for clients, but North Carolina argues that in doing so he’s practicing “land surveying” and needs a license. However, that’s not at all what he’s doing and…
Economic Liberty | Transportation
Colorado Shuttle Monopoly
Abdallah Batayneh opened a shuttle company in Colorado with the goal of providing more affordable rides. But entrenched businesses got the government to use a “certificate of need” law to ban him from opening. Abdallah…
Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services of Nevada, Inc. v. Chandra
In an appeal filed in February 2021, the Institute for Justice is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to examine the question of whether federal judges have unfettered discretion to unilaterally inject their own arguments or…
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom
Wisconsin Cottage Foods II
Wisconsin bans the sale of many homemade foods, including common and shelf-stable foods like candies, chocolates, granola and roasted coffee beans. Seven Wisconsinites have joined with IJ to challenge the state’s arbitrary law.
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Oklahoma Threading
Oklahoma requires eyebrow threaders to spend 600 hours learning skills that have nothing to do with eyebrow threading. This useless regulation prevents people from earning an honest living, which is why two eyebrow threaders have…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
D.C. Teletherapy
Elizabeth Brokamp uses talk therapy to help people improve their lives. She’s licensed in Virginia, where she lives, near the border with D.C. But D.C. will not let her see clients online who she could…
Economic Liberty | Private Property | Small and Home-Based Business | Zoning Justice Project
North Carolina Amortization
Dennis and Peg Schroeder have invested substantial money in their home and chose to rent it out as part of their retirement plan. The city of Wilmington is trying to deprive them of their right…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment
California End-of-Life Doulas
Akhila Murphy and Donna Peizer are end of life doulas – they offer families assistance during at-home funerals. They don’t direct funerals, but California has argued they are acting as unlicensed funeral directors. With the…
Economic Liberty | Fresh Start | Occupational Licensing
California Firefighter Fresh Start
Dario Gurrola is a part-time firefighter who wants to turn his passion into a full-time job. But California prevents him from getting an EMT license because of a prior criminal conviction for which he’s already…
Montana Doctor Dispensing
The vast majority of states allow patients to purchase medications directly from their prescribing doctor. For years, this practice was banned in Montana, until IJ stepped in to challenge the law and lawmakers immediately moved…
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom
Lincoln, NE Cottage Foods
Lincoln, Nebraska imposed restrictions on home bakers that the state itself decided to get rid of. One home baker named Cindy Baker teamed up with IJ to successfully challenge Lincoln’s foolish restriction.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Utah Private Investigators
Jeremy Barnes is a former police officer who runs his own private investigator company in Idaho, near the Utah border. Utah has prevented Jeremy from earning an honest living because he lives three minutes across…
Nebraska CON
Marc is allowed to drive customers to the grocery store, but if he wants to drive them to the pharmacy or a routine doctor’s appointment, he needs permission from his competitors. This nonsensical rule hurts…
North Carolina CON II
The government should never prevent doctors from safely providing affordable health care services their patients need. But that’s exactly what North Carolina, along with 34 other states, do every day. Dr. Jay Singleton is working…
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom | Private Solutions to Public Problems
Washington Little Free Pantry
Thanks to a lawsuit she filed with IJ, Kathy Hay can now share food with her neighbors in Asotin County, Washington, using a “little free pantry” in her backyard. Before the lawsuit, Kathy wasn’t allowed…
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom
North Dakota Food Freedom
Five North Dakotans teamed up with IJ to sue the Department of Health for illegally passing regulations on selling homemade baked goods. Now, North Dakota is again one of the best states in the country…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing
Arizona Engineering Licensing
Greg Mills has been an engineer for more than 30 years, but now a group of industry insiders on a government board are saying he needs a license he does not actually need. IJ and…
Kentucky CON
Two Nepali immigrants wanted to open a home health care business to help people in their community, but Kentucky law let their potential competitors stop them from opening up. The two have teamed up with…
Minnesota Continuing Legal Education
After a successful petition from IJ, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided to ease licensing requirements on attorneys in Minnesota. This was a victory for all attorneys, giving them more flexibility regarding how they earn credits…
Texas Doctor Dispensing
In most states, patients can purchase medication directly from the doctor prescribing it. But in Texas, doctors are banned from dispensing unless they practice in certain “rural” areas more than 15 miles from a pharmacy—a…
Economic Liberty | Hair Braiding | Occupational Licensing
Louisiana Hair Braiding
Hair-braiders in Louisiana are required to complete 500 hours of unnecessary and irrelevant training, pass an exam and pay annual licensing fees just to do their job. Many hair braiders have moved to neighboring states,…
Indiana Eyeglasses
Indiana bans healthcare providers from conducting online eye tests, to protect established businesses from competition.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | First Amendment Retaliation | Transportation
Great Lakes Pilot
Captain Matthew Hight thought he would earn a living navigating cargo carriers on the Great Lakes. Instead, an unholy alliance of a federal bureaucracy and a legalized monopoly suddenly rendered him a castaway. Now he’s…
South Padre Island Food Trucks
South Padre Island caps the number of food trucks in town at 12 and requires that all food trucks have a restaurant owner’s sign off on their permit applications. The Texas Constitution prevents the government…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Speech
Virginia Teaching
Jon and Tracy McGlothian wanted to teach job skills to adults in Virginia, but the state told them they could not do so without a license. With IJ’s help, Jon and Tracy were able to…