Unjust Proceedings

When the government seeks to impose punishment, the judicial system is designed to stand as a barrier between the government’s power and the individual. Punishment can be imposed only after a fair trial before an independent judge and jury.  

Particularly when it comes to fines, penalties, and other monetary liability, however, the government increasingly imposes punishment through kangaroo courts that fall short of that ideal. At the federal level, this takes the form of so-called “administrative courts,” where prosecutors and judges are both employed by the same administrative agency. At the state and local level, governments use an even broader array of special courts and procedures to impose fines and penalties—and even take or destroy property—without notice or a fair trial. 

The Institute for Justice litigates to protect your right to a real day in court. IJ represents individuals and businesses who have been forced to defend themselves in biased administrative courts. Currently, for example, IJ is at the U.S. Supreme Court in Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards representing a family farm that was subjected to over half a million dollars in fines and other liability in an agency proceeding where the only judge was an agency bureaucrat.  

Beyond federal administrative courts, IJ challenges other regimes that similarly strip people of vital procedural protections. Among them: systems that allow the government to impose punishments through special procedures that circumvent normal judicial processes; local “environmental” courts that fine for property code violations without following rules of evidence, keeping written records, or following other just procedures; and schemes that force individuals to pay massive court costs that dwarf the penalties at issue—creating a financial incentive to give up, rather than mount a defense.  

If courts are not independent, or do not follow fair procedures, they cannot serve their critical role protecting individual liberty from overreach by other branches of government.